CHAPTER VII 



FISHERIES ADMINISTRATION IN ENGLAND 



AN active administration of the sea-fishing industry, 

 such as I have just described for Scotland, did not 

 come into existence in England until comparatively 

 recent times ; and even at the present day the 

 fishery authority in the latter country is a much 

 less active body, and with more limited functions, 

 than in the sister country. Why this should be 

 the case is difficult to make out, and one can only 

 suggest reasons. The constitution of the Scottish 

 Fishery Board is almost unique in this country 

 among authorities exercising considerable powers 

 of regulation, and it is perhaps the case that its 

 " semi-private " status, and its practical freedom 

 from matters of departmental routine, has pre- 

 served it from that condition of mediocrity 

 which is so characteristic of the English central 

 authority. Then in England there has not been 

 in modern times any system of bounties or other 

 protective aids, round which, as in Scotland, the 

 general administration of the fishing industry 



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