352 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



these people, but witli almost a continuous annual 

 diminution in their numbers. If this be their state 

 after twenty-five years, a period in which railways have 

 been largely extended and the general condition of the 

 country improved, there seems little hope of reviving 

 the fisheries on that coast, unless it be by means of 

 strangers, who may perhaps find it worth their wdiile 

 to work there during part of the year. Everything 

 seems to us to point to the probability of the Irish sea 

 fisheries becoming more and more restricted to those 

 parts where they are now being carried on with most 

 success ; there we may hope for further improvement, 

 and that native boats will form an increasing propor- 

 tion of the mixed fleet which annually works on the 

 eastern and southern coasts of the island. 



The granting of loans ^ by Grovernment to needy 

 and industrious fishermen for the repair and provision 

 of the necessary boats and gear for working is again 

 strongly advocated by the Inspectors in their Report 

 for 1872; and such a grant was recommended by the 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 

 Sea Coast Fisheries (Ireland) Bill in 1867. 



That such loans would be of advantage in many 

 cases, as they have been before, there can be no doubt ; 

 and as it is proposed to grant them to tliose fishermen 

 only who can give satisfactory security for their repay- 

 ment, there should not be much danger of loss. But 

 independently of the question of whether it should be 



^ Our notice of the Irish Fisheries was written before the recent debate in 

 Parliament on the subject of Government loans to the fishermen, which 

 resulted in the decision by a majority of two votes in favour of adopting that 

 system. The arguments in support of Government help were not altogether 

 of a novel or unanswerable character; and there was nothing mentioned 

 during the debate to lead us to modify the opinions wc have expressed, or to 

 believe that any real and permanent good will result from thus encouraging 

 the fishermen to look to the Government for help whenever bad times, from 

 whatever cause, may overtake them. 



