1152 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



that he had not been in fishing vessels, and that after the 

 evidence had been received he had taken no further 

 interest, as he had other occupations, but signed the report 

 as drawn up by the gentleman from the Board of Trade 

 after he had " run it over." And yet it is given in evidence 

 that these three gentlemen were appointed by the President 

 of the Board of Trade as a committee of experts. What a 

 delusion ! and what a careless way for a Government 

 department to deal with a matter affecting such momentous 

 interests, involving the risk of thousands of lives and 

 enormous property. These gentlemen visited various 

 ports, and informally enquired of persons interested in the 

 fisheries the grounds on which they had based their objec- 

 tions to the new rules 



. This brief allusion to the lights question will show 

 that, however willing and anxious a department may be to 

 legislate for the benefit of this most peculiar trade, it cannot 

 do so successfully and beneficially without first consulting 

 and securing advice from persons who have practical know- 

 ledge of it, whether ashore or afloat. One nautical 

 gentleman who was concerned in one of the committees, 

 on being shown a trawling smack, asked the question, 

 " Where are the yards ?" -things entirely unknown in our 

 English trawlers. Again, when the latter part of article 7 

 of the existing Regulations is considered, which runs as 

 follows : " Fishing vessels and open boats when at anchor 

 or attached to their nets and stationary shall exhibit a 

 bright white light," how absurd it appears ; for what craft 

 are there that are ever stationary when attached to their 

 nets ? for even in a calm a trawler will have her gear at 

 her side, and a drifter will be drifting with the tide ; it 

 would only occur in the exceptional case of a trawler fast 

 to a wreck or rock or otherwise ; and this article is the 



