34 
became ripe, to let in the whole rabble of the town to 
come in and take the produce at their discretion. He 
hoped this would not be the last Conference held on the 
subject, but that it would be adjourned to a more con- 
venient time. They were all agreed that a wholesale 
destruction was going on all round the coast, especially on 
the south coast, and he could sometimes shed tears of 
vexation to see the little fish brought in. The Crab and 
Lobster Bill was almost a dead letter, and in 1861 he sent 
to the Home Office a crab weighing one-and-a-half ounces, 
which was the largest he could select out of about ten 
bushels. The law forbade the offering of these fish for 
sale under a certain size, but there was nothing to prevent 
the men catching them and eating them themselves, or 
giving them away, which seemed to him a great mistake. 
The Act had been in operation since 1877, and had done 
no good at all. 
Mr. JEX asked Mr. Welfare whether seine-nets were 
worked on the south coast. 
Mr. WELFARE said: yes. In 1866 he was a witness to 
about ten thousand mackerel being brought in, out of which 
only eight hundred were large enough for sale. 
Mr. J. C. BLOOMFIELD wished to say a few words in 
behalf of the Irish fisheries. He had never been so de- 
lighted in his life as to hear a number of practical fisher- 
men discussing in such a masterly manner the interests with 
which they were connected. He would impress upon them 
that the question of international law was one of great 
difficulty ; they would never get a Frenchman to alter the 
mesh of his net, or to do anything whatever in the interests 
of the English fisherman ; whatever he did would be done 
in his own interest, and his interest would be according to 
the party who happened to be in power at the time. If 
