.si;lect committee qn the, sea fisheries bill. 



9,7 



1] March 1904] 



Mr. M. Tutton. 



[Continued- 



Chairman — continued, 

 practically impossible to maintain a uniform 

 depth on account of the wash. 



1810. Are they alive when they are landed ?-^ 

 They would bo alive when they are landed 

 there. 



1811. Would it be possible for your officer to 

 re q i re that undersized fish should be thrown 

 back ? — We have no power at present. 



1812. I mean would it be physically pos- 

 sible ? Supposing your bailiff was there could 

 he say, " You are not allowed to land fish under 

 a certain size ; you must throw them back " 1 — 

 He has no such power at present. 



1813. But would it be physically possible ?^ 

 Scarcely that ; and that is the reason we think 

 the mere term " landing " would not meet all 

 our difficulties. The landing might be effected 

 without detection. After that there comes the 

 exposure for sale and the sale of the fish. 



1814. What do you propose? — That there 

 should be something inserted in the Bill to 

 prevent the fish being taken from stake nets in 

 that respect. 



1815. You cannot help the fish being taken 

 in the stake net ? — No, they practically land 

 themselves ; they are left ashore when the water 

 recedes and the tides go out ; they are practi- 

 cally landed, and a difficulty might arise 

 as to the term landing and we should have no 

 power. 



Duke of Abercor 



n. 



1816. They are within the nets ? — Yes, within 

 the scope of the net. 



Chairinan. 



1817. How can you prevent their being caught ? 

 , — By some such term as " having in possession," 

 or, " exposing for sale." 



1818. Has your Committee memorialised; the 

 Government on this subject? — Yes. 



1819. Can you hand in a copy of that memo- 

 rial ? — Yes {haniing in the same). 



1820. When was that memorial presented ? — 

 About ten years ago. 



1821. And so far as you are aware are they of 

 the same opinion still ? — Yes, quite. I was 

 Chairman of the Committee at that time, and 

 have continued ever since, so I quite know that 

 it is of the same opinion. 



1822. Then if you will give us a copy of that 

 memorial we will put it in the appendix. — If you 

 please. 



Duke of Ahercorn. 



1823. When you mention that these flat fish 

 are caught in the stake nets and then landed and 



. sent away for sale, where do they go to for sale ? 



— Either into the town or they are sent up into 



the inland districts. 



.:. 1824. Then is it possible to sell the small flat 

 tfish such as you mentioned ? — They get what 



they can for them; but at the same time it is 

 -not a proper satisfying food for the people up in 

 ■ the manufacturing and works districts in the 

 '.outlying parts of Swansea. 

 r:- 1825. It must be very often more bone; than 

 oflegh?— Yes. ■: ' , v. ;,; -. 



:(0.10.) 



Duke of Ahercorn — continued. 



1826. Then would )our stake owners, sup- 

 posing they had restrictions with regard to the 

 sale of these flat fish, object to that ; or do you 

 think, when they found it was really for their 

 benefit that these Fmall fish should not be 

 destroyed, that they would willingly give their 

 adhesion to the Bill ? — The fact of their 

 knowing that it was the uniform practice of the 

 whole trade all alike all round the coast would 

 reconcile them to any reasonable legislation. 



1827. The English are law-abiding people, and 

 if they found they had one uniform law all 

 round the coast they would submit to it in your 

 opinion ? — Yes. 



Chairman. 



1828. I did not ask you whether you were in 

 favour of the clause in the Bill giving power to 

 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to enact 

 byelaws round the coast similar to the power 

 uow possessed by the fisheries committees ? — I 

 think it would have a good effect ; it would 

 bring the different committees more in touch 

 with one another. And it also raises the question 

 which at present exists of overlapping, and each 

 area almost being a law to itself. I mean under- 

 sized fish may be caught in one area and taken 

 over the boundary into another. 



1829. You might gradually, through the 

 operation of that clause, attain the ideal often 

 put before the Government by the fisheries 

 committees, of having uniform fishery regii- 

 lations round the coast of England, in the same 

 way as they are round the coast of Scotland ?-^I 

 think it would be very desirable. 



Lord Hen cage. 



1830. You do not ask that the actual sale 

 .should be prohibited ; what you want is that 

 the prohibition of landing should be more 

 clearly defined, so as- to make it more effectual 

 in your opinion than you think.it is now. That 

 is your point, is it not ? — We have not fixed 

 -upon any words to meet tlie question, but what 

 we do want to have is, that not only the fact of 

 landing is prohibited, but that if the detection 

 of the fact of landing undersized fish is evaded, 

 there might be some other means of spotting 

 the fish fl'herever it might be found ; so that, 

 whether it is the person exposing it for sale or 

 the person who has taken it from the landing to 

 the salesman, wherever the fish is found it could 

 be spotted and dealt with. 



1831. And the person punished ? 



Chairman. 



1832. I will not ask you to give the figures 

 now, but could you furnish the Comixiittee with 

 the quantity of fish taken anjiually by these 

 fixed nets ? Have you any records ? — It would 

 he difficult. We have no record of it kept, 

 because they are private owners, who send the 

 fish right away into the toAvn and to the different 

 dealers. 



r 1^33. Can, you tell us what number of fixed 

 -.nets- , there are. You know that probably? — 



Probably about two dozen. 

 ..._ ■■ 1884. Is there anything further you wish to 



say ? — I have not said anything as to the deep 

 N _ sea 



