ak 
young to new localities, fresh fisheries could be established. 
One of the benefits derived from this Exhibition, and by 
no means the least important, should be the collection of 
such information as would enable the Legislature to act 
for the public benefit in improving our in-shore fisheries, 
and induce other Governments to act in concert. 
Mr. HENRY SMITH (Brixham) said he had heard it 
stated during his experience of forty-three years that if 
their forefathers were wrong, to a certain extent theit 
children were wrong, but he should be able to show that 
in all cases it was not so, inasmuch as the fishery of Brixham 
as carried on forty years ago, was a very different thing as 
compared with that of the present day. Mr. Jex had held 
up for their inspection a piece of net—a part of a trawl-net 
which was used at the present time at Brixham ; and asa 
representative of the place, he (Mr. Smith) wished to do all 
he could to put down the practice of destroying many tons 
of small fish. Many years ago the smacks employed in 
trawling were much smaller than those in use at present, 
ranging from eighteen to twenty tons, but now they ran 
from forty-five to fifty tons, showing that now they did not 
work with the same kind of materials as their forefathers 
did. The trawls now in use were of very considerable 
length and size in mesh, and would compare favourably in 
size with those used at any other place. Taking a net of 
65 feet for the beam, the mesh was three and a half to four 
inches in the clear. He had had fifteen years up and down 
the North Sea fishery, and having seen the trawls used by 
the fishermen of Hull, Grimsby, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and 
Ramsgate, he could safely say that the Brixham trawl 
would outstrip in size and length that used by any fisher- 
men from any other place. The fishing net which Mr. Jex 
presented to the audience as a sample of the Brixham 
