2 4 o BRITISH FISHERIES 



could be treated as confidential, and published 

 only in abstract. There could be no reasonable 

 objection on the part of the fishing trade to 

 furnish this information, unless, as has been 

 pointed out, a certain reserve usually observed 

 by a man when his income exceeds a certain 

 figure, might encourage him to evade making 

 fishery returns. The evolution of a system 

 applying only to fishing vessels of the first and 

 second classes could not possibly present any 

 difficulty. To take account of the numerous 

 class of fishermen who work along the shore 

 would be more difficult, but even here there 

 is no obstacle which could not be surmounted. 

 At present the officers of a local fishery com- 

 mittee, in a district where administration is not 

 a farce, know personally every fisherman in their 

 area, and have exceptional opportunities for super- 

 vising the work of such a system of fisheries 

 correspondents as exists on the Scottish coast. 

 For both these methods of obtaining statistical 

 returns statutory powers would be required. It 

 should be obligatory on every fisherman to make 

 a return, when required, giving the information 

 alluded to above. Such statutory powers are 

 actually enjoyed by the Scottish Fishery Board. 1 

 Now, it was confidently expected that, when the 

 Inter-departmental Committee on Fishery Statistics 

 reported, a recommendation suggesting the re- 



1 They are, however, seldom exercised. 



