39 
should step in for the purpose of regulating to some extent 
the fishing on those grounds. That was as far as he would 
go in that direction. He had knowledge of the fisheries 
from the West of England right round the coast of Scot- 
land, and his experience only showed him how careful they 
must be in accepting positive statements without due 
inquiry. A gentleman from Brixham had told them of the 
kind of trawl he used, which he said was larger than any 
other. No doubt he made the statement in good faith, but 
he (Mr. Alward) had the management of a trawl which he 
was sure would astonish that gentleman if he told him the 
magnitude and extent of it. He had spoken of fishing 
vessels ranging in former times from 18 to 25 tons, and 
now-a-days from 45 to 50 tons. To-day they were using 
vessels from 45 up to 130 tons. Again there was a generally 
held opinion amongst practical fishermen that the places 
where the small fish were obtained in such large quan- 
tities were confined to the coast line, and that was true 
to a large extent, but not absolutely true. In the 
line somewhere between the Texel and Boston Deeps, 
there was a place where a large quantity of small 
fish were caught in the middle of the North Sea. The 
Grimsby people did not fish there very much at present, 
though they did formerly ; but an immense quantity of 
small plaice were found there, and as far as he knew that 
was the only exception to the rule he had referred to. 
Coming to the size of mesh, a mesh which would allow 
small plaice to escape would allow the largest sole they 
knew anything about to pass. When the Silver Pits 
abounded with soles, small soles were caught there in im- 
mense numbers, but that was a thing of the past, for hardly 
any soles were caught there now. He had not been 
able to satisfy his mind whether the exhaustion of the 
