PROTECTION OP DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 471 



30. That the present Scotch Fishery Board form a 

 portion of a general system throughout the United King- 

 dom on revised lines. 



31. That the present Irish Fisheries' Commissioners also 

 form a portion of the proposed general Board. 



ADDENDA (i). 



An important point, and one which is daily increasing in Submarine 

 difficulty, must not be forgotten; it is the question pf 

 submarine telegraph cables. It is a daily increasing one 

 for this reason, that the submarine cables which were laid 

 quite as an innovation a few years back, are now beginning 

 to get old and worn, and consequently require much more 

 attention and repairing than they did during the first few 

 years of their existence. This difficulty will increase rather 

 than diminish, as new lines of cable are constantly being 

 laid on various coasts. As matters now stand, there is no 

 law bearing on the point. A company lays a cable which, 

 while it lasts good, will cause many a vessel to lose her 

 anchor, should she be unfortunate enough to hook it, but 

 as soon as the cable begins to get old, thin, and weak, it 

 breaks on being hooked by an anchor, and the company 

 begins to call out about damage to cables. A repairing 

 steamer is sent which grapples for the ends, and finding 

 possibly that the cable is in a bad state, takes up a 

 certain length of it, puts buoys on to the ends left, with- 

 out any notice of any kind being given to any authority. 

 She then goes away to obtain a piece of cable to repair it 

 with, or to a harbour to overhaul it, with a view to splic- 

 ing and cutting out certain portions before relaying it. 

 This is necessarily a work of time, as each splice 

 occupies three hours, not reckoning the getting out 



