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was the matter of fishing-vessels' lights in an international 

 point of view. All the maritime countries of the world 

 looked to England to devise the best system of fishing- 

 vessels' lights, and yet it was actually the fact that the 

 system of lights arranged in England was proved by the 

 Select Committee, which he persuaded the House of Com- 

 mons to grant, to be one which could not possibly be 

 carried out. That was proved beyond doubt, for the 

 Government witnesses that came before the Select Com- 

 mittee had to acknowledge that they had had no experi- 

 ence whatever with regard to fishing-vessels, and had never 

 been in a fishing-vessel at night. He himself cross- 

 examined them at considerable length, and in four cases 

 he remembered the Government witnesses acknowledged 

 that they knew actually nothing about fishing-vessels. 

 That was the way in which legislation was carried on, and 

 he did think it was of paramount importance that there 

 should be some government department, or some associa- 

 tion, whose objects were far wider and greater than those 

 of the National Fish Culture Association, which he was 

 proud to belong to. He was convinced that all the Foreign 

 Commissioners would confirm what he had said, that in a 

 great maritime country like England, whose fisheries were 

 of such importance, this want ought to be supplied. 



(The vote of thanks having been carried unanimously), 

 Mr. Fryer, in responding, said he had not only to thank 

 the meeting for the kind way in which the motion had been 

 proposed and received, but also to thank those gentlemen 

 who had been so good as to criticise his paper. He had 

 purposely introduced many debatable points, because he 

 felt that, if he made a proposal for a Society to deal with a 

 subject on which everybody was agreed it would fall flat. 

 It would be perfectly unnecessary to have a Society or or- 



