28 STATISTICS 



competitor would have the least opportunity of arriving at what 

 they were doing.' 



Mr. J. Vivian, who supported Mr. Hellyer, told the Com- 

 mittee : ' I think the fishery officer, in collecting this evidence, 

 will not in two cases out of three get to know where the fish are 

 caught ; the fishermen will not tell him — in fact they wjll not 

 tell the owner sometimes. Some of the owners have the utmost 

 difficulty in getting to know where the fish are caught.' Asked 

 whether the fisherman would not have the same reluctance 

 in giving information under a scheme of compulsion and still 

 prefer to keep his information to himself, the witness replied : 

 ' He might do it, but I do not think he would do it to the same 

 extent as by giving it direct to a local officer at the time of 

 landing the fish.' 



Mr. F. Donnison, of Boston, was also in favour of compulsory 

 statistics, and Mr. G. Alward repeated the opinion which he 

 had given to the Committee on Statistics in 1900 to the same 

 effect. Asked whether owners might not object he replied : 

 ' They may urge the inconvenience and the cost of making the 

 returns, and that would be a difficulty with which you would 

 have to contend. I have always thought that if you paid 

 a small fee you could command the returns.' 



Mr. Bloomfield, of Yarmouth, said : ' If this information is 

 to be sought and kept locally, I am afraid there will be so much 

 local prejudice and jealousy that it would militate against 

 getting any reliable data. But if the trawler owners and 

 steam-drifter owners generally were afforded some small recom- 

 pense for furnishing this information, and if it were sent to 

 a Government Office — say in London — on prescribed forms, 

 I do not think there would be any difficulty.' 



Mr. E. C. Ward, of Fleetwood, speaking of the Collector of 

 Statistics, stated : ' We do not give him any information ; we 

 decline to : we are afraid of his giving information to our 

 neighbours. We are prepared to have forms made out, and 

 a small sum granted to us to send them direct to the officer at 

 Preston who has charge of the district.' These returns he con- 

 sidered would be accurate ; but it would be necessary to refund 

 owners for the expense involved and pay a small fee. ' We 

 should have to pay our clerks a little to do it ; we do not want 

 the money ourselves.' 



Mr. Frank Barrett was also in favour of getting statistical 

 information from owners and salesmen — preferably the latter. 

 Questioned as to the difficulty of discovernig the locahty from 

 which the fish came, ho said : ' If a man gets a good voyage of 

 fish he does not want his neighbour to know where he got it. 



