.MTUyOA.MTIzOTU

489

[Governors Reasons]

pickled and smoked fish", which has passed to be enacted in the Senate and House of Representatives was laid before me on the 15th Inst - Perhaps there is no one object in which all classes of our citizens are more immediately interested, than in that of gaining and establishing for the products of our soil, our fisheries, and our manufacturies, a character and reputation abroad. As a grazing country this State is second to no State in the Union. A laudable ambition animates our farmers and other citizens that our beef and pork; our butter and lard; our pot and pearl ashes; & the other productions of our soil and industry, should not suffer in comparison with similar productions of any country in the world. And it is exceedingly desirable that the products our fisheries, as well as our farms, our dairies and manufactories, should acquire and sustain a character so interesting to our State. From the extent of our Sea coast, our numerous bays and rivers; from our proximity to the Banks and the vast shoals of fish that frequent and hover on our coasts; & from the habits of many of our citizens on the sea coast, our fisheries must always afford to the people of this State, one of their most valuable staples for exportation. To establish for our productions a character abroad so desirable: to gain the public confidence and thus to secure to the owners the highest price in the market, it is absolutely necessary that we should have judicious and digested inspection laws, systematically and even rigidly enforced and executed with uniformity and without partiality. To the accomplishment of an object so