450 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



White Herring Fisheries is an object of the most essential 

 importance to the wealth and commercial prosperity, as 

 well as to the naval strength of this kingdom, for the 

 attainment of which it is expedient that more effectual 

 regulations should be made in order to the insuring a due 

 and proper attention to the curing, sorting and packing of 

 white herrings, that the credit of the British Fisheries in 

 our Colonies and foreign parts may be maintained, be it 

 therefore enacted," &c. The principal duties of the Board 

 have been to collect statistics in connection with the herring 

 fishery, to brand cured herrings according to quality, and col- 

 lect the fees for so doing,- to gauge the barrels, and inspect 

 the same during the manufacture, so that they may be 

 all of one standard size. There are other minor duties 

 which can all be more efficiently performed, and with very 

 little extra expense, if any, by the Board of Admiralty, the 

 Customs and Coastguard authorities. The Lords of the 

 Treasury in 1855 gave it as their opinion that the functions 

 of the Board were not to keep order on shore or afloat 

 among the fishermen, or to enforce the observance of con- 

 ventions between this country and foreign powers. The 

 Board has undoubtedly performed good and useful service, 

 especially as regards the collection of statistics for Scotland, 

 but these are only partially satisfactory to the nation at 

 large. They would be of much greater value had the 

 Board been so established as to carry on its work round 

 the whole coasts of the kingdom, and it ought to be now a 

 matter for the consideration of Government, whether it 

 would not be desirable to extend its duties as regards 

 statistics and the social condition of fishermen. It would 

 doubtless form another link in the chain of evidence 

 respecting the migrations of the herring, as the statistics of 

 all kinds would follow from place to place round the coasts, 



