16 
Now, sir, I think any person not acquainted with the sub- 
ject, to whom this report was presented, would assume this 
to be the normal state of things in shrimping, and that this 
was a fair representation of what took place, and that the 
shrimping industry was a miserable business. We may also 
conclude that we are to understand that Mr. Dawson made 
the wonderful discovery that a shank net is much less 
destructive than a trawl. I say nothing about Mr. Dawson's 
improved shank. The report admits that the experiments 
which apparently showed a slight advantage over the 
ordinary’ shank net were not conclusive, and if they 
were experiments in fair or moderate weather on a 
steamer, they are not much guide to results that would 
be obtained in sailing craft, where the slightest complication 
may make a net useless, and where it is as much as ever 
the men can do to handle the boat and nets. 
In regard to the shank net and these assumed discoveries, 
would it not have been well if Mr. Herdman had placed the 
whole truth before the committee and told them that the 
shank trawl was invented (I believe before Mr. Dawson was 
born) by the fishermen in order to reduce the intolerable 
nuisance of catching small fish ; and that its effect was well 
known before County Councils and Sea Fisheries Committees 
were thought of. I myself explained the action of it, and 
the reason why it was used, when practicable, to the Com- 
mission who made the enquiry in 1878, and my “evidence 
