STATISTICAL METHODS 9 



as they went both incorrect and inaccurate. The position was 

 summed up accurately by Mr. Holt in 1895^ when he wrote : " It 

 appears to be the peculiar function of the Fisheries Department of 

 the Board of Trade to formulate statistics which shall be just 

 sufficiently complete to bring into strong relief the importance of 

 what is omitted from them." 



In June, 1896, the naturalists on the staff of the Marine Biological 

 Association of the United Kingdom prepared a report on Fishery 

 Statistics for the information of the Council of the Association. This 

 report showed that the official statistics were defective in the 

 following respects : — 



I. The discrimination between the species of fish landed is 

 imperfect. 



II. The results are given in weights and values ; nothing is said of 

 numbers and sizes. 



III. The results are arranged according to the localities where the 

 fish are landed ; nothing is said of the locality of capture. 



IV. The statistics given concerning boats and men employed are 

 inadequate for the purpose of showing the condition and history of 

 different branches of the industry. 



V. No separation is attempted of the products of different methods 

 of fishing. 



In 1900 a Board of Trade Committee was appointed to inquire 

 into the system of collecting fishery statistics in England and 

 Wales, and to report how the system could be improved and ex- 

 tended, and what additional cost (if any) would be entailed thereby, 

 having special regard to the opinion expressed by the Select Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons on Sea Fisheries, 1893, and the 

 proposals of the Stockholm Conference, 1899. This Committee 

 reported in 1901, but its recommendations were not put into force 

 immediately. In fact, it was not until 1906 that there was any 

 marked improvement in the official returns. During the previous 

 year (1905) improvements in the collection of statistics were 

 gradually effected in four directions. 



Considerable progress was made towards obtaining complete 

 accounts of the results of each voyage of every first-class trawler 

 and liner landing fish at the various ports on the east coast ; this 

 method of collection was extended to similar vessels landing fish 

 at ports on the south and west coasts ; a commencement was made 

 towards obtaining detailed returns of the locality of capture of 

 herrings, mackerel, pilchards and sprats, and finally the number 



* " An examination of the present state of the Grimsby Trawl Fishery, with 

 especial reference to the destruction of immature fish," by E. W. L. Holt Tourn 

 M.B.A., N.S., III, 1893-5, p. 339. 



