FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 189 



In England little or nothing has been done by the State 

 for the maintenance or construction of harbours, specially 

 or solely in the fishing interests. But two Acts passed in 

 1 86 1 the General Piers and Harbours Act 1861 (24 & 25 

 Viet c. 45) and the Harbours and Passing Tolls Act, 1861 

 (24 & 25 Viet. c. 47) gave facilities for the construction of 

 harbours or piers generally in any part of the United King- 

 dom, and authorised the Public Works Loan Commissioners 

 to issue loans to harbour authorities, at interest, and repay- 

 able within fifty years. Under these powers considerable 

 sums of money have been advanced to several harbour 

 authorities in the three kingdoms. 



The General Piers and Harbours Act is probably sus- Suggested 



., , r -111- i i amendment of 



ceptible of considerable improvement by a very slight i aw as to 

 alteration in one clause, which provides that any single hz 

 person or body of persons having an interest in any 

 property of a similar nature likely to be affected by a pro- 

 jected pier or harbour may, by withholding their written 

 consent, prevent the Act being put into operation. An 

 amendment of the law which would leave it to an arbitrator 

 to settle any disputes or difficulties which might arise in 

 the manner contemplated by the Act, or which would at 

 least prevent a minority of individuals, or bodies, from 

 opposing by vis inertice any new works, would probably be 

 an advantage both to the fishing interest and to the shipping 

 interests at large. As the law now stands, it is in the power 

 of a single individual, by simply withholding his signature, 

 to stop the application of the powers of the Act to a work 

 which the whole country may unite in demanding, and to 

 compel, in the alternative, a resort to the expensive and 

 tedious course of obtaining powers under a private Act of 

 Parliament. The tele- 



Thc use of the electric telegraph as an agency in the fhe P fisheries. 



