2 COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



Commissioners was morally obligated to protect these legally licensed 

 lobstermen from the encroachments of the non-licensed or unscrupu- 

 lous fishermen. Furthermore, when it is recalled that not only the 

 laws governing the lobster industry, but those regulating many 

 branches of the general fisheries as well are dependent for their 

 enforcement upon the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, the chaotic 

 state which would have resulted in our fisheries from the failure to 

 appoint deputies to enforce the laws can readily be imagined. The 

 Commissioners, therefore, acting under the advice of the attorney- 

 general and prominent members of the legislature, continued to em- 

 ploy their deputies. As will be seen in the Chapter on the " Enforce- 

 ment of the State Laws," a number of violators of the law were 

 brought to justice. This, however, does not correctly represent the 

 work of the deputies, as it is obviously of greater importance to pre- 

 vent lawlessness than to punish lawbreakers. 



At the Wickford hatchery a continuance of a large portion of the 

 work as a matter of economy and conservation was imperative. The 

 egg lobsters, which had been purchased the preceding fall and had been 

 cared for and fed through the winter in order to obtain an early supply 

 of fry for the use of the Commissioners at their hatchery, were near 

 the point of hatching their eggs. To have released them would 

 have entailed a loss to the State not only in the time and expense 

 of providing and keeping them, but in the still greater loss in the 

 failure to conclude the experiment. At the expense of weeks of labor 

 by the superintendent and his men, the lobster rearing plant had been 

 overhauled and placed in readiness for the opening of the season. 

 Additional apparatus, consisting of new gears, shafting, rafts and cars, 

 had been added with a view of largely increasing the output of young 

 lobsters. The launches, boats and all paraphernalia had been put 

 in good condition. In fact the entire station had been put in such 

 state as would amply warrant more efficient and economical opera- 

 tion and an increase over the output of any previous year. It is 

 necessary, each year, that all this work shall be done weeks in advance 

 in order to handle the lobsters when their eggs are ready for hatching. 



