PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 451 



and many valuable inferences might be drawn. With the 

 above exception of incompleteness, and the branding 

 question, the general duties of the Board and its officers 

 appear to be satisfactory and well carried out. 



The Herring Brand appears to be the most important Herring 

 question affecting the Scotch fisheries at the present Scotland. 

 moment, but it is in reality more a question of commercial 

 principle than a bond fide fisheries question. 



It will not be desirable here to go minutely into 

 statistics, as they are already very fully published in the 

 " Report from the Select Committee on the Herring Brand, 

 Scotland," 2ist June, 1881, and it would simply be a matter 

 of copying them out, but to deal with the question in a 

 general way. 



There appears to be a division in the trade of Scotland 

 on the point, those who desire the abolition of the 

 branding system appearing to be in a minority of two- 

 thirds, and consisting principally of large merchants, who 

 feel that they would be able to withstand any ill effects 

 which the abolition might temporarily bring on, and who 

 have confidence that they would by superior cure and other 

 means eventually secure for their own brands a sounder 

 footing and better prices than they do at the present time 

 by the system of Government branding. Those who 

 advocate the retention of the brand appear to consist 

 principally of the smaller curers and fishermen who have 

 not the confidence that is possessed by those who advocate 

 its abolition, and doubtless such abolition would, through 

 financial causes, prevent many of the smaller curers from 

 carrying on the business, as they would not at first so 

 readily obtain advances from bankers and others. There 

 can be no doubt but that when the brand was first adopted 

 it was a highly desirable thing, as the trade was then in its 



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