210 



THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



Floating 

 spawn and 

 the trawl 

 question. 



flicting statutes. The Salmon Fishery Act of 1861 repealed 

 no less than thirty-three statutes dating from Magna 

 Charta. The Sea Fisheries Act of 1868 swept away, in 

 whole or in part, sixty-four Acts of Parliament dating from 

 Henry VII. Both these Acts were the outcome of several 

 Commissions or Committees of Enquiry, and every addition 

 to them has similarly been based upon the recommenda- 

 tions of bodies specially appointed to make enquiries and 

 advise the Legislature. The recommendations of these 

 Commissions have, in many cases, been confirmed in a 

 striking manner by independent scientific research. The 

 anti-trawl agitation, for instance, has lived upon the asser- 

 tion, inter alia, that the trawls destroy the spawn of cod, 

 ling, whiting, and haddock.* But the trawl works along 

 the bottom of the sea, and it has been demonstrated by 

 Prof. G. O. Sars beyond the possibility of a doubt and 

 any one can prove it for himself that the spawn of the 

 cod and of the haddock floats on the surface of the water, 

 and can no more be injured by the trawl than by the gun 

 of the grouse-shooter. A single fact like this is worth 

 more, as a guide to the State in framing legislation, than 

 oceans of loose opinions and doubtful inferences, of preju- 

 diced statements founded on imperfect observation ; and it 

 is a question, well worthy the attention of the State, 

 whether it should not take up the study of the natural 

 causes affecting the fisheries as a part of its machinery for 

 their regulation. If the operations of man form a wide 

 subject for investigation, the influences of Nature afford 

 a still vaster field of observation ; and a knowledge of them 

 is quite as necessary as a knowledge of the effect of 

 artificial influences, in framing and directing legislation. 

 * The question of the trawl and herring spawn has already been 

 touched upon. 



