PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 405 



owner, and it frequently occurs that he becomes insolvent, 

 either in form or in reality. The mortgagee then seizes 

 the vessel and obtains the benefit of all the gear and 

 stores put on board by the reputed owner. In a drifter's 

 case, more especially where the nets are constantly being 

 changed, the mortgage may have been made when there 

 were a lot of old nets on board, and the vessel seized with 

 a fleet of nearly new nets, which have been obtained by 

 the reputed owner, though no one can prove it. Thus a 

 facility is offered to unprincipled men to embark in the 

 fishing trade without risk of much or even any loss, the 

 merchants and tradesmen having to suffer. Gear ought, 

 therefore, to be excluded from mortgages. Another point is 

 that some more easy method is required of recovering moneys 

 due to crews, in cases where a salesman is mortgagee. It 

 sometimes occurs that a master of a boat makes a good 

 voyage ; he is then offered a vessel to work out at a high 

 price by the salesman, on his investing the results of his 

 good voyage. The offer is usually jumped at, even if the 

 price is high. The next voyage does not prove so success- 

 ful, and perhaps the owner finds himself unable to meet 

 his creditors. The salesman, who is also mortgagee, holds 

 what moneys the fish caught during the voyage have 

 realised, looks after himself and retains this money on 

 account of his mortgage, the mortgagor being possibly 

 under an agreement to that effect. When the crew look 

 to the owner to settle up, he has no money for them. 

 The matter then turns to a complicated point of law, 

 which fishermen, as a rule, are not able to go into, and the 

 consequence is they lose their earnings. The legal points 

 are, as to the relation the salesman bears to the crew, who 

 are generally by the share, and thus partners, but yet have 

 had nothing to do with the appointing of the salesman, 



