Sept. 9, 1875] 



JSA I URE 



393 



waters and territorial seas. Legislation, attended on the 

 whole with marked success, has led to the development of 

 the salmon fisheries of the United Kingdom ; a much 

 less successful attempt has been made to increase the 

 produce of our exhausted oyster fisheries ; and a very 

 able Commission, which enjoyed the advantage of Prof. 

 Huxley's assistance, has investigated and authoritatively 

 disproved the allegation that our sea-fish were decreasing. 

 In England and Scotland, at any rate, satisfaction is 

 usually expressed at this state of things. With the 

 single exception of the oyster, the harvest of the sea 

 proves annually as productive, or even more productive, 

 than ever, while the increasing consumption of a growing 

 population and the greater destructiveness of modern im- 

 plements of fishing, are not apparently unduly diminish- 

 ing the numbers of our sea-fish. Ireland, however, to 

 judge from the language of her representatives in Par- 

 liament, is less satisfied with her position. The very 

 fish, if we may credit some authorities, are deserting the 

 coasts of this unhappy country ; and Irish fishermen, with 

 their old tackle worn out, and with no money to purchase 

 new, are emigrating to other fishing grounds on the other 

 side of the Atlantic. The picture annually presented to 

 us of the miserable condition of Irish fishermen was so 

 deplorable, that Parliament, last year, was induced to 

 interfere. The Ministry was surprised by a hurried 

 division, and unexpectedly defeated by a narrow ma- 

 jority. Its defeat compelled it to place a portion of the 

 Irish Reproductive Fund at the disposal of the Irish 

 Inspectors of Fisheries ; and the Inspectors are now 

 enabled to lend small sums of money to needy fishermen 

 on their personal security. No such loan has yet been 

 made. But, on the eve of adopting a new policy, it is 

 occasionally desirable to review the circumstances which 

 have led to it ; and we turn, for this reason, to the 

 recently published report of the Inspectors of Irish 

 Fisheries. 



The Report is divisible into two portions. The first 

 and shorter portion refers to Sea Fisheries, Oyster Fish- 

 eries, and Harbours ; the second and longer portion to 

 the Inland or Salmon Fisheries. The salmon fisheries 

 of Ireland are fairly prosperous. The amendments which 

 are required in the law are not numerous or important ; 

 and we do not therefore propose to follow the Inspectors 

 into their review of them. But the ten pages of the Re- 

 port which are devoted to the sea fisheries and oyster 

 fisheries of Ireland, deserve for every reason most atten- 

 tive consideration. The oyster fisheries occupy a very 

 short space in the Report, and may be dealt with in the 

 first instance. The Inspectors have exercised almost 

 absolute powers in dealing with this question. They are 

 authorised to appropriate to any individual who applies to 

 them, large portions of the fore shore of Ireland, and 130 

 licensed beds, occupying 18,825 acres of fore shore and 

 sea-bottom, have thus been appropriated. The result of 

 this wholesale appropriation of public dredging ground 

 might well have justified Parliamentary interference. 

 •'The chief object," say the Inspectors, "in granting 

 licenses (cultivation) has not been fulfilled. In the majo- 

 rity of cases we believe there has not been anything 

 deserving to be called an attempt to cultivate the ground 

 granted. The proprietors in numerous instances content 

 themselves with getting as much as they can for their 



private use, and do nothing to replenish. We would be 

 fully justified in cancelling the majority of the licenses." 

 We quite agree with the Inspectors in this view ; but we 

 should like to know why some of the licenses have not 

 already been cancelled. Two years ago the Inspectors 

 assured us that they had " warned some licensees that 

 their licenses will be withdrawn unless within twelve 

 months they proceed to cultivate." The public have 

 a right to inquire whether the warning has been 

 attended to, and if not, why the threat of the Inspectors 

 has not been carried out. The Inspectors, indeed, say 

 that they have so "many pressing duties to perform," 

 that they have been compelled to postpone attending to 

 the oysters. But can any duty be more pressing than 

 the restoration to the public of ground really taken from 

 them under false pretences ? The Inspectors have found 

 time to grant five new licenses ; they would have done 

 much more to promote oyster culture if they had can- 

 celled five old ones. " Overdredging and a succession 

 of bad spatting years " are of course given as the cause 

 of the growing scarcity. But it is worth while remarking 

 that we had nothing of bad spatting years till overdredg- 

 ing had decreased the stock of oysters. If an oyster 

 bed be scraped clean of all the adult oysters, no spatting 

 season, however favourable, can be a good one. 



But the most important portion of the present report is 

 undoubtedly that which relates to the Irish Sea Fisheries. 

 There can be no question about the decrease of Irish 

 fishermen. In 1846, or before the famine, 113,073 men 

 and boys were employed in 19,883 vessels and boats on 

 this industry. In 1874 the number of vessels was reduced 

 to 7,246 ! the number of hands to 26,924 ! The decline 

 both in boats and men has been continuous throughout 

 the period. But, with due deference to the Inspectors, it 

 is easy to account for it. The " melancholy ocean " 

 which surrounds Ireland is subject to very severe storms : 

 and no fishing-boat can prosecute its industry consecu- 

 tively throughout the year. Under such circumstances 

 one of two things must happen — either the Irish Seas 

 must be fished by men who, in strong weather, may 

 resort to quieter fishing-grounds, or the Irish fisherman 

 must combine other operations with his fishing. Before 

 the famine the last of these things occurred. Every Irish- 

 man was a cottier. He tended his potatoes and his pig in 

 bad weather : and he went a-fishing in calm weather. 

 But, since the famine, the cottiers have gradually been 

 worked out. Large farms have swallowed up small ones : 

 and the occupiers of large farms, and their servants have 

 no time to go out fishing. The class from which the mass 

 of Irish fishermen were drawn had ceased, or is ceasing, 

 to exist ; and Irish fishermen are consequently decreasing 

 in numbers. But, though Irish fishermen are decreasing, 

 the Irish fisheries are not decaying. What do the Inspec- 

 tors tell us? There were only 187 Irish boats engaged 

 last year in the herring fishery off Howth. But there 

 were 343 English, Scotch, and Manx boats. There were 

 only 61 Irish boats in the mackerel fishery off Kinsale. 

 But there were 226 English, Scotch, and Manx boats. 

 The Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Manxmen, following 

 the fish round the whole coasts of England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland, beat the Irishmen, who never follow them at all. 

 Every one has seen Cornish boats fishing for herrings 

 in the North Sea ; or Scotch boats beating the English in 



