FISHING PORTS 219 



by roomy quays, on which are the markets, warehouses 

 and ice factories. It is intended to increase the length 

 of the basin by 220 yards, and the depth by 6 feet 

 6 inches, and also to construct three other docks. Even 

 in 1900 more than 11,000 tons of fish were sent by rail 

 into Holland, Belgium, and Germany. 



IV 



The equipment of a port is not everything. The 

 manner in which it is administered is also an element 

 of success. 



The French administrative system, from the Revolu- 

 tion to the present time, has passed through three phases. 

 In the first place the ports kept their own budget, but 

 it was administered from Paris. Then the Restoration 

 completed the work of State centralisation and com- 

 pletely assimilated the ports to the highways. To-day 

 those chiefly interested have acquired, together with the 

 Chambers of Commerce, a fragmentary power over the 

 working plant and equipment. In this capacity they can 

 impose certain local rates, which destroy the fiscal uni- 

 formity of the tariffs imposed in the various ports, but 

 give them very little real initiative, since these rates cor- 

 respond with obligatory expenses. " No sort of financial 

 order," writes M. d'Agout in his noteworthy report to 

 the last Congress of Commercial Ports, " throws a light 

 on these successive transformations, made without any 

 general plan, under the stress of necessity. The con- 

 fusion is maintained and even increased by the natural 

 tendency of the administrations to retain jealously the 

 initiative of schemes and works, while responsibilities 

 are dispersed to the point of being intangible. There 

 are no public bodies in the ports entrusted with such 

 matters as their enlargement, or even their upkeep. 



