90 



MINUTES (IF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE 



11 M<nrh 1904.] 



Mr. E. WiNDEATT. 



[Continued. 



Chairman — continued. 



men themselves, the owners of the trawlers 1 — I 

 think it would be shared by the owners of the 

 trawlers, but I doubt whether it would be shared 

 by the men working the trawlers. 



1641. \Miy ?— I think they like to catch any- 

 thing they can sell now. 



1642. Do they share the profits ? — Yes, my 

 committee have been always unanimous in 

 petitioning in favour of all the Eills about 

 undersized fish. 



1643. In common with all the sea fisheries 

 committes round the coast ? — Yes. 



1644. We had evidence of that at the begin- 

 ning of the inquiry. You have observed, pro- 

 bably, that the Bill proposes that there should 

 be powers to the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries to make byelaws in the same manner 

 as are possessed by the sea fisheries com- 

 mittees. Have you any views upon that point ? 

 — I am strongly in favour of that, because the 

 sea fisheries committees consist of so many 

 different interests that there is a good deal of 

 dispute between them as to carrying anything 

 of that sort. 



1645. I suppose, generally speaking, you 

 would agree that uniformity in the byelaws all 

 round the coast is desirable ? — Certainly, that 

 is one of my points, because only recently we 

 bad byelaws with regard to lobsters and crabs, 

 and those of the adjoining district, -nhich is the 

 southern, were utterly different. After some 

 time we managed to get the southern to have 

 the same byelaws as we had. 



1646. In Scotland the byelaws round the 

 •coast are all fixed by the same authority, are 

 they not ? — Yes. 



1647. Is that a desirable thing in your 

 opinion ? — I think so. 



1648. Your committee have, in common with 

 others, on more than one occasion invited the 

 •Government to form a Fishery Board for Eng- 

 land, have they not ? — Yes, we have. 



1649. And that would be one of the main 

 objects of the Bill ?— Yes. 



1650. Then there is a certain part of the 

 ■coast of England which possesses no fishery 

 committees at the present time ? — Yes. 



1651. Do you think it is desirable that the 

 whole coast should be under regulations ? — I 

 do. 



1652. And if this power were conferred upon 

 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries you 

 would desire, I presume, that so far as possible 

 it should endeavour to educate up the less 

 -advanced fisheries committees to the level of the 

 more advanced fisheries committees ? — Certainly. 



1653. Is there any steam trawling at all ? — 

 Not within the 3-miie Hmit. I think I am right 

 in saying that in Cornwall there are practically 

 no by-laws inside the 3-mile limit except to keep 

 out the steam trawlers. They have not got bye- 

 laws similar to ours, and we are adjoining them. 



1654. Is it not the fact that the experiments 

 vou have made round the west and south-west 

 ioasts cf England have gone to show that there 

 jire certain bays and estuar es which are the 

 habitat of small, undersized fish ? — Yes. 



1655. And there are other bays and estuaries 

 Avhich, curiously enough, although under similar 



Cha irman — continued, 

 conditions, are not ? — Yes, as the researches of 

 members of the Marine Biological Institute at 

 Plymouth have proved. 



1656. Generallv. you approre of the Bill ? 

 —I do. 



Lord Xorthbouviie. 



1657. You said that a great many of these 

 fish weio thrown overboard ? — Yes. 



1658. W^e had evidence yesterday from one 

 gentleman who said that if they were thrown 

 overboard in large quantities they polluted the 

 grou id ; what do you think of that ? — I should 

 not think so. We keep them ri^ht out of the 

 bays, right out in the channel, out in the open 

 sea, at a good depth. 



1659. Do you think that would make any 

 difference whatever ? — No, 1 do not think so. I 

 have no practical knowledge of that, of rourse. 



1660. A^Tiat area do you represent altogether? 

 — It think it is about 126 marine miles. 



1661. Where does it extend from? — The north 

 and south coast of the whole of the county of Devon, 

 and a small portion of the countyof Cornwall— just 



e piece on one side of Plymouth Sound. 



1662. Is there another committee for Pen- 

 zance ?_Yes, there is another committee for 

 Cornwall. 



1663. You do not represent the Brixham 

 trawlers 1 — No. It i^ one of my points, that 

 we do not get uniformity with Cornwall. We 

 have a Cornwall representative on our committee, 

 and our byelaws extend to a part of Cornwall ; 

 but Cornwall has another committee of its own, 

 and it does not have any byelaws except to keep 

 the steam tA-awlers right outside tne 3-mile 

 limit. 



1664. Is there any opposition to this Bill on 

 the part of what you call the longshore people^? 

 ^I do not think so. The longshore fishermen, I 

 do not think, will be injured, because I have 

 had experience of that sort of fishery, and their 

 fish are not dead when they bring them in, and 

 they only throw it away. This Bill would 

 compel all to throw them away, which they 

 do not do at the present time, and they ought to 

 do so. 



Lord Heneage. 



1665. You spoke of uniformity of practice 

 throughout these districts. Is it not within your 

 knowledge that some years ago there was exactly 

 that complaint with regard to the cattle diseases 

 provisions in various counties, and in conse- 

 quence of that, a Bill was brought in in 1886 to 

 promote uniformity, and since then there has 

 been practically no disease whatever? — Yes. 



1666 And that is owing to the uniformity 

 throughout the whole district? — Yes, I am aware 

 of that. 



1667. And do you think if there was uni- 

 formity in the regulations of all the districts 

 aroimd the coasts, it would be far better than if 

 each was left to itself, conflicting one with 

 another ? — Yes. 



1668. Do you kno - anything about the 

 Lancashire byelaws ? — N - 



1669. Thev have not loicjfered in any way 



# with 



