266 NOTES ON OYSTER CULTURE. 



The Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888 (51 and 52 Vict., c. 54), 

 will, it is hoped, prove of great advantage to the fisheries of all 

 kinds. It enacts that the Board of Trade may, on the application 

 of a county or borougli council (or, if they refuse to apply, on the 

 direct application of twenty rate-payers), create a '' sea fisheries dis- 

 trict " and provide for the constitution of a "local fisheries com- 

 mittee " for the regulation of the sea fisheries carried on within the 

 district. Due notice of the proposal is to be given beforehand, and 

 an inquiry, if necessary, to be held on the spot. The " local 

 fisheries committee " is to be a committee of the county council, or 

 the borough council, or a joint committee of both, " with the addition 

 in each case of such members representing the fishing interests of the 

 district ... as may be directed by the Order ci-eating the 

 district." The committee is empowered to make bye-laws regulating 

 the methods and instruments used for fishing, for creating a district 

 of oyster cultivation such as is contemplated by the heading (3) 

 quoted above (p. 265) from the Act 40 and 41 Yict., c. 42, and for 

 " prohibiting or regulating the deposit or discharge of any solid or 

 liquid substance detrimental to sea fish or sea fishing " but not 

 " affecting any power of a sanitary or other local authority to discharge 

 sewage in pursuance of any power given by a general or local Act 

 of Parliament, or by a Provisional Order confirmed by Parliament.^^ 

 The bye-laws are to be approved by the Board of Trade. The com- 

 mittees may also impose penalties for breach of their bye-laws, and 

 appoint fishery officers with power to stop and search suspected 

 vessels or vehicles within the limits of the district. A meeting for 

 consultation with the Board of Trade, to which each committee may 

 send at least one member, is to be held annually. Special regula- 

 tions define the relations of the committee to boards of salmon con- 

 servators and harbour authorities ; and they may not pass bye-laws 

 prejudicially affecting any rights of several fishery, any bye-laws of 

 salmon conservators, or any powers of sanitary authorities mentioned 

 above. 



The Reports by the Board of Trade of their proceedings under Part iii of the Sea 

 Fisheries Act, 1868, will be found in the following places, among the Sessional Papers : 



