49 
have been too little honour for such demi-gods. But 
Providence has timed it otherwise. Did we choose to 
claim that first appearance demonstrated facts, we might 
certainly assert that these fishery laws had destroyed the 
whiting. We do not, however, act on their lines. We 
recognise old Dame Nature’s hand, and simply claim that 
$0 far as the fisheries are concerned, all this cost. and all 
this cruelty have no effect on the supply of fish, good or 
bad. 
Apart from this phenomenon connected with the 
whiting, experiments at Southport showed clearly that 
a year was sufficient to make most fish sizable ; that 
in the four chief groups three years would grow fish 
to an enormous size; shell fish as far as we have any 
data come under the same conditions, therefore in 
return for the heavy cost, and the vastly more serious 
moral. injury inflicted on our shore fishing popula- 
tion, we are entitled to ask at the end of eight years for 
some proof of the value of their work. 
We were told the fishermen would soon recognise the 
fishery officials as their best friends. Do they? What are 
the results? Fishermen discontented, bitterly complaining, 
risking fine and imprisonment rather than obey the law, 
the scientists complaining that their boats have no time 
for scientific work as the 13 bailiffs are so heavily employed 
doing police work. More men are wanted, more areas 
E 
