8 



some slight fluctuations, has been rapid and continuous. I 

 will now consider the conditions under which they have 

 prospered and under which the trade in cured herrings has 

 so greatly increased. 



The Herring Fisheries Commission of 1878 reports that 

 up to 1829 it had been the policy of the legislation to 

 encourage the Herring Fisheries by bounties, but the 

 bounties were discontinued, Mr. McCulloch expressing an 

 opinion that the fishermen often went to sea to catch the 

 bounties and not the fish. 



From 1829 to 1851 the Fisheries were free from Govern- 

 ment sources of encouragement and were subject to no 

 restrictive regulations of importance. From '51 to '67 a 

 series of restrictive measures were passed to regulate the 

 Fishery and to prevent the capture of herrings at cer- 

 tain seasons and in certain ways. Since 1 867, again, when 

 the first of the liberating Acts were passed (due in a great 

 degree to the report of the Commission in '62, presided 

 over by my right hon. friend in the chair), the Fisheries 

 on the coast of Scotland have practically been free and 

 subject to no restrictive legislation whatever. 



I find that from 



Average number of barrels 

 cured annually. 



1829-51, period of unrestricted fishing . . . 521,880 

 1851-68 restrictive legislation . . 657,160 

 1868-1881 unrestricted fishing . . . 827,580 



These figures show that the average increase per annum 

 in 1 3' years of unrestricted legislation exceeded that of 17 

 years of restrictive legislation by 170,420 barrels. 



The two systems were tried for sufficient periods to 

 justify the conclusion of the Commissioners of '78, viz. 

 " That legislation in past periods has had no appreciable 

 effect, and that nothing that man has yet done, and nothing 



