i a THE HERRING FISHERY. 



Before this the buying was mostly in the hands of the 

 curers. The greater part of the herrings fished on the 

 coasts of Scotland were cured and sent to the market and 

 sold as new salt herrings. Grocery shops and other places 

 of retail sold them by the pound, like any other commodity. 

 The opening up of the English market to us, and the prices 

 realized there, alarmed the curers, who thought this new 

 method of fishing would hurt their trade, and they raised 

 the hue and cry which several interested parties were not 

 Trawling con- slow to take up. They said that trawling would soon rob 



demned by' 



interested our waters of all the mother herrings, and that herring 

 fishing would soon become a thing of the past. Among 

 the malcontents were fishermen, if we can call them fisher- 

 men men who earned their livelihood as such in the 

 summer months and returned to their trades or farms in 

 the winter. In the newspapers articles appeared against 

 trawling, and monster petitions, very largely signed by con- 

 sumers, were presented to Parliament against the practice. 

 Trawling for- The consequence was that in 1860 an Act was passed 

 ofpartiaLlTt! making trawling illegal on the west coast of Scotland, also 

 closing the time for fishing herrings from the 1st of 

 February to the ist of June. 



Effects of this Many fishermen and their families were brought to 

 measure. 



poverty through this Act. The law was so strictly enforced 



that the fishermen were not allowed even to fish herrings 



for bait, and a substitute for this purpose could not be found. 



Government Her Majesty's Government at last became aware that some 



inquiry insti- 

 tuted, error had been committed and appointed a Commission to 



Commission investigate. The Commission found that neither the 



appointed to 



investigate, quantity nor the quality had been produced since the 



Act repealed, passing of the Act already referred to ; it was repealed as 



soon as possible and all restrictions removed. After this 



herring fishing began to flourish. Cotton twine was also 



