Very good copies of these Newfoundland imprints. With the granting of “responsible government” (whereby the local assembly had the final say rather than the royal governor) in 1855, these two volumes document the early phase of government in Newfoundland. Indeed, among the bills is one to incorporate the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland. Others for education, roads, and lighthouses show a growing infrastructure. Much of the territory remained wild which is evident in bills such as the one to encourage the killing of wolves, another for wild fowl protection. Importantly, there are also the results of the census.
Pages 267-419 of the 1858 volume are the “Abstract Census and Return Of the Population &c. of Newfoundland, 1857.” The population count gives separate numbers for men and women under the ages of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50, as well as numbers of each group over 70. More intriguingly, are the subdivisions into “widowers, widows, orphans, the blind, lunatics, and idiots.” Places of birth are also recorded - Newfoundland, England, Ireland, Scotland, British Colonies plus “Foreign States.” Religion, professions, the number of students, and different classes of buildings are also counted.
The Fishery Convention between France and Britain as it applied to the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador dominates the first volume. The islands of St Pierre and Miquelon (not far of the coast) were French and the British North America Act would not be passed for another decade. The Trans-Atlantic Telegraph was also in the works and on 18 February 1857 “An Act to incorporate a Company under the style and title of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company” was read for the first time.
