PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 357 



incorrectly rilled in, but as they are practically useless, 

 no notice has been taken of it, and no one has suffered. 

 This agreement is very reasonable in the case of a coasting 

 cargo vessel, where, as is frequently the case, the crews 

 remain the same for several years, the only alterations 

 being caused by illness or death ; but to endeavour to 

 apply it to fishing vessels shows what great ignorance 

 has existed as to the requirements of the fishing trade 

 It is admitted that this agreement was of some value 

 previous to the passing of the Payment of Wages Act, 

 1880, whereby imprisonment for desertion was abolished, 

 because if a man deserted and was apprehended and 

 brought before the magistrates, they had the power to 

 imprison him ; and this alone made it worth while for the 

 owner and the hard-working part of the crew to go to the 

 custom house or marine office and pay the fee of four 

 shillings, which is the authorised fee for signing the crew 

 of a vessel under eighty tons. But, on the other hand, by 

 the passing of Plimsoll's Act, and the Crew Spaces Act, a 

 keen-sighted man had another weapon put into his hands 

 at various times by threatening the owner or master that 

 if he had him apprehended he would call in the Board of 

 Trade surveyor, and point out any small discrepancy 

 which might exist between the vessel as she was and as 

 she ought to be in order to strictly conform to the Board 

 of Trade regulations, which were framed for cargo ships, 

 and were impracticable as far as fishing vessels were con- 

 cerned. This was plainly shown, firstly in the Crew Spaces 

 order which, when applied to fishing vessels, proved that in 

 some cases if the whole vessel had been converted into ac- 

 commodation for crew the cubic space for each man would 

 not have been sufficient to comply with the law ; secondly, 

 in the case of the sanitary order, which made it compulsory 



