n 



, 



PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 395 



under the Employers Act, some of them have shipped to 

 vessels without number, living on board till the vessel is 

 ready for sea, then deserting and shipping to another. 

 When they begin to get too well known at one port they 

 tramp to another, and play out their game there, repeating 

 the same yearly as the voyages come round. 



The remedy provided in the Act of 1880 for conveying 

 a deserter on board was well meant but is practically useless, 



r this reason, that when the deserter is found he can claim 

 to be taken before the court, which he would do on principle, 

 with a view of defeating the attempt to convey him on 

 board. This means delay, especially in ports where the 

 magistrates sit weekly only, and this delay renders the 

 remedy useless. If the Government will not re-enact the 

 old law, the only remedy will be to provide means for the 

 immediate issue of warrants for the arrest of deserters and 

 the imposition of a fine, or in default imprisonment, though 

 this will not meet the case as the old law did ; for if a 

 warrant can be obtained in a quarter of an hour only, it will 

 give deserters a good chance and encouragement. 



The question of Lights is most important and has been the Lights, 

 subject of special enquiries. The Sea Fisheries Act of 1 868, 

 which embodied the convention of 1867, ordered that a drift 

 fishing vessel should carry two white lights, one over the 

 other, three feet apart, between sunset and sunrise, when the 

 nets were shot. This was not carried out by France, and 

 consequently was not generally observed by English vessels. 

 The Sea Fisheries Act, 1875, supervened to direct that 

 nothing in the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, should be considered 

 to repeal or alter the regulations of the Merchant Shipping 

 Act, 1862, under which the Order in Council of 1863 was 

 made. There were thus three Acts directly bearing on the 

 question of lights, and in consequence the greatest ignorance 



