THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 67 



regulations for preserving order and preventing collision 

 more and more necessary. A central authority alone can 

 devise means for regulating the traffic of the ocean, or can 

 determine what lights or other marks shall be borne by 

 distinctive classes of vessels. The State has, from the first, 

 recognized its obligation to discharge this function. But it 

 has still much to do before it can rest from its labours. The 

 whole question of lights at sea — the most important of all 

 the subjects arranged by the State which affects the 

 fisheries — is in a confused and unsatisfactory position. 

 The decision of the Hague Convention is still unratified. 

 These and other questions await solution ; and the State, 

 and the State alone, is capable of solving them. 



In the third place, though in this respect greater caution 

 is necessary, the State may probably do something to pro- 

 mote the construction of harbours in which the fishing-fleets 

 may find shelter in bad weather, or in which facilities may 

 be afforded for landing fish. The State, indeed, could pro- 

 bably undertake no more pernicious function than the 

 construction of fishing-harbours. If it be once known that 

 the Treasury is willing to build harbours for localities, local 

 bodies and individuals will cease to build them for them- 

 selves. The Imperial Exchequer, however liberal it may 

 be, can never hope to do so much as the localities them- 

 selves, and its readiness to build harbours will actually lead 

 to fewer harbours being built. The true course, apparently, 

 for the Government, is to encourage local efforts by offering 

 to advance money for the purpose on easy terms. It will 

 thus avoid the embarrassing duty of selecting the precise 

 spots which are most worthy of attention, and it will escape 

 the invidious distinction of preferring one place to another. 

 Much may, indeed, be urged for the policy of constructing 

 one or two harbours of refuge at exposed points of the 



