^^° THE SEA FISHERIES 



been anticipated. It is to this effect. " We accordingly recommend 

 legislation enabbng the Central Department to make Orders for 

 the prevention of the sale, marketing or exposure for sale of under- 

 sized fish, subject to such exceptions and conditions as may be 

 prescribed for that purpose." 



This subject of the destruction of undersized fish has been dealt 

 with elsewhere (Chap. IV), and the arguments put forward then 

 should be considered before these recommendations are adopted. 



The Committee then proceed to deal with other complaints, 

 all of which, though of some importance, are subsidiary to the great 

 one of maintaining the future supply of fish on the inshore grounds. 

 The administrative duties of the Central Department and the 

 Local Fisheries Committees next occupied the attention of the 

 Departmental Committee, who sum up in a manner very adverse 

 to the local bodies. " The evidence which has been laid before us 

 in the committee-room, and the impression which has been left 

 on our minds as the result of our local tours, convince us that there 

 are grave weaknesses in the constitution of the Local Fisheries 

 Committees. The primary object for which they were constituted, 

 namely, the protection and development of the inshore fisheries, 

 has not been achieved." One objection urged against the local 

 bodies is that the contributing authorities may be more interested 

 in keeping down the contributions than in developing the fisheries. 

 No doubt this is a charge which may be brought against all local 

 authorities, for instance, education and public health committees, 

 but it is obviously not in itself a sufficient reason for dissolving the 

 whole of such authorities because a few are recalcitrant. The 

 Departmental Committee point out that the cost of inshore fishery 

 administration falls entirely on maritime, county and borough 

 councils, and that London, for example, though a great fish- 

 consuming centre, contributes nothing to the expenses. This has, 

 of course, long been recognised by the Local Fishery Committees, 

 who have repeatedly urged the Central Department to introduce 

 legislation to remove this anomaly. 



Under the provisions of the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888, 

 the Central Department has convened annually since 1891 a 

 meeting in London of representatives of the local committees for 

 consuhative purposes on matters relating to the Sea Fishery 

 Regulation Acts. There is hardly any subject of mterest to the 

 inshore fisherman which has not been discussed annually at these 

 conferences for at least twenty years, but it would be very d« 

 to name one which has received any attention at the hands he 

 Central Department. As early as the second conference 1892) the 

 financial question was raised by the Western Committee, who 



