OYSTER FISHERY LEGISLATION. 955 



this country and France, in putting in force the Convention 



of 1 8 67 Even if our statistics should never be 



required as evidence in matters of la haute politique, they 

 would have many other not less useful if more humble 

 purposes to serve in the daily administration of the Fishery 

 Laws. 



An industry in which, in the United Kingdom alone, 

 some 150,000 persons are directly engaged as fishermen, 

 which gives employment to at least an equal number of 

 persons as curers, packers, &c., and, indirectly, to a still 

 larger number as makers of nets and hooks, barrels, and 

 other apparatus and appliances for the equipment of the 

 boats ; in which capital to the extent of not less than three 

 or four millions sterling is invested, .... has natur- 

 ally strong claims on a large share of the attention of the 

 "State, and compels its interference, directly or indirectly, 

 in many different directions. 



The statistics on which these estimates are based are 

 very imperfect ; but from the data available the following 

 figures are taken: In 1881, according to the Board of 

 Trade returns, 10,357 boats were registered as fishing- 

 boats and vessels, under the " Sea Fisheries Act, 1868," in 

 England and Wales, 766 in the Isle of Man and Channel 

 Isles, and 14,145 in Scotland ; the total number of fisher- 

 men and boys employed by all these boats being given as 

 94,764. The Scotch Herring Board, however, in its report 

 for 1 88 1, states that in the Scotch herring, cod, and ling 

 fisheries alone, 14,809 boats and 48,121 fishermen were 

 engaged in that year. The report of the Irish Fishery 

 Inspectors for 1881 states the number of registered fishing- 

 boats to have been 6458, and of fishermen and boys 

 24,528. These figures give us an approximate return of, 



