3* 



suitable breakwaters and harbours of refuge, with the 

 most beneficial results. He did not pretend to argue the 

 advisability of this system in a country where it was the 

 State policy for every industry to be left to its own re- 

 sources ; but in Canada, which might be considered more 

 protective of native industries, that course had been 

 pursued, and fishermen had been protected not only by 

 the providing of harbours, but by the distribution yearly 

 of a quarter of a million of dollars in the encouragement 

 of fisheries. 



Mr. RONALD MACDONALD (Aberdeen), said the views 

 of gentlemen from England, Ireland, and Canada had 

 been heard, and as he came from Scotland, where the 

 herring fisheries were more important than in either 

 England or Ireland, he hoped he might be allowed to 

 make a few remarks. He knew a number of Mr. Duffs 

 constituents, who appreciated very much the great intelli- 

 gence and practical interest he had taken in the develop- 

 ment of fishing in Scotland, and he had listened with 

 great pleasure to the comprehensive paper which he had 

 read ; but it could not be expected that everything which 

 might be supposed to be even of essential importance to 

 the subject, could be compressed into so short a paper. 

 On one point there seemed to be a little want of unanimity, 

 namely, the uselessness or otherwise of legislation with 

 regard to fisheries. The views on this subject came from 

 two different quarters, and they differed according to the 

 quarter from which they came. Some years ago he had 

 the opportunity of being present when evidence was laid 

 before the Commission which had been referred to, when 

 Mr. Buckland, Mr. Walpole, and Mr. Young went round on 

 the east and west coasts of Scotland, and he found that all 

 those who were interested in the inshore fishing demanded 

 that there should be restrictions, while those who depended 



