402 



NATURAL SCIENCE. Dec. 



who has a salary of ^300-^400. The Secretary of State of the 

 Home Department appoints the inspector of salmon fisheries, who 

 has a salary of /"600. 



The Board have the appointment of all the other offices, such as 

 the general inspector of sea fisheries, with salary of /'30o-/'35o, an 

 assistant, with salary of / 250-^ 280, and a nmiiber of minor appoint- 

 ments. ;^i,8oo is given to the Board to spend in scientific investiga- 

 tion : they opened at Dunbar about twelve months ago their first 

 fish-hatching establishment. 



The Board have the general superintendence of the salmon 

 fisheries of Scotland, and take such measures for their improvement 

 as the funds under their administration allow. They are the only 

 authorised authority for branding herrings, and from this source they 

 derive an annual income of about ;^8,ooo. They look after the piers 

 and quays under the authority of 5 Geo. IV., c. 64. Their expenditure 

 under all heads amounts to about ;^28,ooo a year. At the beginning 

 of this year the only scientific member of the Board was Professor 

 Mcintosh, of St. Andrew's. 



Here, then, is a great permanent department with most important 

 duties and with a jurisdiction extending over all Scotland and the 

 Northumberland coast. For the administrative and executive duties, 

 the permanent staff and a board of intelligent persons selected for any 

 reason whatever should suffice. But nothing is clearer than that the 

 main object of expenditure should be the maintenance and improve- 

 ment of Fisheries, now that the income is no mere wresting of taxes 

 for the Crown. The regulation and repair of piers and quays, and 

 commercial necessities like the branding of standard qualities, are 

 matters within the intelligence of most. The times and seasons for 

 protection, the regulation of trawling, the provision of bait, and 

 above all the extension of fish-hatching stations are matters that can 

 be solved only by trained scientific experts. Sheriffs, in Scotland, are 

 necessarily learned men ; Members of Parliament, no doubt, have 

 special abilities and have the opportunity of being in touch with the 

 practical needs of their fisher- constituents. But it is urgent and 

 imperative that in this country, as in France and America and 

 Russia, departments dealing with problems soluble only by science 

 should be under the responsible control of scientific men. 



This is no question of Mr. Angus Sutherland and Mr. John 

 Murray : it depends upon no weighing of their personal capacities. 

 The choice of individuals is best left in the hands of a responsible 

 department, and many considerations unknown even to omniscient 

 editors may select or reject an individual. The choice of the kind 

 of individual should not be left to Government. 



Science and the State. 

 For the selection, by Government, of the wrong kind of indivi- 

 duals for posts that should imply scientific knowledge in the holders, 



