THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF 1893 59 



sea-fisheries regulation and administration, and we 

 come now to the latest phase of the question. The 

 question of the effects of trawling has been finally 

 settled ; and under the powers exercised by the 

 Fishery Board in Scotland, and by the District 

 Committees in England, large portions of the 

 British coastal waters have either been closed 

 against that method of fishing, or considerable 

 restrictions have been imposed on those prac- 

 tising it. The latest phase of fisheries restric- 

 tion concerns fishing on the high seas ; and 

 the inquiries we have now to consider must be 

 regarded as initiating a future policy of fisheries 

 restriction in extra-territorial waters by the force 

 of international agreement. 



Two public inquiries belong to the period I 

 am now considering. In 1893 tne House of 

 Commons appointed a Select Committee to con- 

 sider the state of the sea-fisheries of the United 

 Kingdom. I will endeavour to trace the causes 

 which led to the appointment of this body. A 

 remarkable development of the sea-fisheries had 

 taken place during the interval between the report 

 of the Trawling Commission and that of the 

 Committee referred to ; and this change is char- 

 acterised by the great increase of steam trawling 

 vessels, and the decrease in the number of smacks, 

 and by an extension of the area fished over. The 

 former change is represented in the following 

 table : 



