ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1151 



their legislative duties the Servants will be any better. 

 But let us see. 



A very able, thoroughly practical, and most experi- 

 enced writer, ($) in the course of detailing the inefficiency 

 of the Fishery Laws, says :- ... All these blunders 

 could have been avoided had we, like other nations, an 

 organised fisheries department. The Board of Trade, 

 which legislates for the fisheries, has not on its staff a 

 single practical fisherman, or even anyone who knows the 

 common rudiments. What would be the result if a man 

 trained as a fisherman was chosen to practically advise a 

 department on shipping matters ? The reply is Blunders. 

 The same argument then may be employed vice versa. 



It is all very well for the Board of Trade, 

 as the present system is, to hold inquiries, when it wants 

 information, from fishermen, but these cannot afford to lose 

 time, or make experimental trips and hauls for the benefit 

 of the community at large. This should be the work of 

 the Government, and is one which has been undertaken by 

 other Governments long ago, with the result that we are 

 behind-hand in our knowledge of fish and fisheries. 



In reply to questions put to them when 

 being examined by the select committee (on the question 

 of Lights) afterwards appointed, one gentleman said he 

 had no experience whatever as regards fishing in trawlers 

 or drifters. The second said, that not being a sailor he 

 could not answer nautical questions. The third admitted 



(b] The effect of the existing National and International Laws for 

 the Regulation and Protection of Deep Sea Fisheries, with Sugges- 

 tions for Improvements in the said Laws. By W. Morris. Pp. 68, 70, 

 7i> T 36, 138. (Prize Essays issued in connection with the Great Inter- 

 national Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883. Wilham Clowes and 

 Sons.) 



