FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 145 



Laws falling under the first category may, in one sense, 

 invade the province of those coming under the second, 

 since, though their immediate object is the limitation of 

 the destructive powers of man, their ultimate aim is the 

 improvement of the fisheries. In so far as they protect the 

 fisheries from exhaustion possible or imminent they pro- 

 mote their future development ; but they are distinct, both 

 in conception and in execution, from purely " promotive " 

 laws laws, that is, passed with the sole object of encourag- 

 ing the public to undertake the prosecution of the fisheries 

 without regard to the possibility of their future impove- 

 rishment. 



Of the first class of legislation are those laws which, 

 among other things, establish a close time. To the second 

 class belong those which offer bounties on vessels employed 

 in fishing or on fish exported. The third category com- 

 prises those laws which, taking no heed of either of the 

 above points, merely aim at reconciling conflicting interests, 

 at preventing moral and social abuses, and generally secur- 

 ing the safety and welfare of those engaged in the pursuit 

 of the fisheries. To this last class belong laws for the 

 " police of the sea," for facilitating navigation, and for pro- 

 viding harbour accommodation. The question of harbour 

 accommodation, of course, very closely touches the question 

 of direct encouragement to the fisheries ; but it falls, 

 properly, under this third category, since it is the great 

 importance of the fishing industry that has emphasised the 

 cry for additional harbours, and not or at any rate not 

 mainly the desire to encourage the fisheries that has 

 created the cry. 



A sketch of the history of legislative enactments on the History of 

 , . ... ... legislation. 



subject of the fisheries will place in a very clear light the 



distinction between the three different aims which the 

 VOL. IX. E. 6. L 



