SEA-FISIIEKIES LABORATORY. 181 



Impelled by the decline of the fishery, by the condemna- 

 tion of Public Health Authorities, and by our own adverse 

 reports, they applied to the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries for an Order enabling them to improve, main- 

 tain and regulate the mussel fisher}- in the estuary, and 

 a Public Enquiry was held at Conway in December b}' 

 an Official of the Board. The object of the Order was to 

 enable the Corporation to take such steps as might be 

 necessary for the continuance and development of the 

 fishery, consistent with the protection of the public 

 health ; and the provisions of the Order included the 

 establishment of cleansing depots such as had been 

 recommended in Mr. Johnstone's Report. 



At the Enquiry the fishermen took up an impossible 

 position. They did not Avant the Order in any form, 

 they objected to the regulations suggested, and especially 

 to the proposed royalty of 6d. per cwt. to pay the expenses 

 of the improvements. They denied that the mussels 

 communicated disease, and asserted that there was more 

 demand for them all over England and Wales and 

 in Conway than there ever had been, and that they never 

 had complaints. They expressed the belief that ruin 

 vrould fall upon them and Conway if the Order became 

 law. The only object of the Corporation, in promoting 

 the Order, they said, was to get money. If it were con- 

 firmed " everybody would haul up their boats and 

 tackle." In cross-examination they denied that they 

 washed their mussels near the sewers — a practice which 

 had been observed by both the late Dr. Bulstrode and 

 Mr. Johnstone when making their inspections, on several 

 occasions. This uncompromising hostility to regulation 

 on the part of the men must do harm to the industry. 

 The Conway mussels are regarded with suspicion, and it is 

 probable that the fishery, in the absence of any regula- 



