FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 187 



one pare is most productive, while its neighbour is abso- 

 lutely barren ; or that one is suited for " fattening " purposes, 

 while another, closely adjoining, is available only for 

 "spatting" or breeding. An extension of the present 

 system of encouraging mussel and oyster culture in the 

 United Kingdom, not only by reducing the expense of 

 obtaining a grant of foreshore, but by offering inducements 

 to individual effort rather than to joint-stock enterprise, 

 would be of great benefit to the oyster and mussel fisheries. 

 The system might possibly even be enlarged by including 

 areas in which crabs and lobsters could be stored and kept 

 till they had attained the legal size. 



Whatever may have been the actual part played by the Harbour 



. accommoda- 



bounties in the immense development which the fisheries tion. 

 both at home and in foreign waters have experienced, 

 it may be questioned whether the money that was spent 

 in that way might not have been better invested in 

 the construction of harbours. No fishery can be properly 

 conducted unless the vessels engaged in it have adequate 

 accommodation, not only for the discharge of their cargoes, 

 but for shelter in time of storms. While a small harbour, 

 again, is sufficient for small boats, the larger vessels which 

 modern developments of both fishing and navigation are 

 multiplying so rapidly, find the accommodation which was 

 ample half a century ago quite inadequate, and often abso- 

 lutely a source of danger. Larger boats are required for 

 the safety of the fishermen as well as for the successful 

 prosecution of the fisheries farther out to sea ; and thus not 

 only larger harbours, but harbours at more frequent intervals 

 along the coast, are more and more urgently required. 

 What the State has done in this respect for the encourage- 

 ment of the fisheries is not comparable with its long-con- 

 tinued energy in the matter of bounties. The White 



