PUBLIC FISHERIES FOR SHELLFISH 209 



applications to the Local Government Board for sanction to loans 

 for outfall sewerage works below high-water mark, that Board will 

 forward to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, for communi- 

 cation to the local fishery authority concerned, a statement giving 

 particulars of the scheme supplied by the promoters ; and will 

 notify the fishery authority of the date and place of the local inquiry 

 into the application. It will then rest with that body to make at 

 the inquiry any representations, in the interest of the fisheries, 

 which may be thought desirable. The local fishery authority will 

 thus be enabled, in those cases to which the arrangement applies, 

 to bring their views directly before the Department concerned with 

 questions of public health, and it is hoped that, as a general rule, 

 the arrangement will result in their having earlier notice of schemes 

 than has hitherto been possible." 



It will be seen, therefore, that the local fisheries committees have 

 no power (beyond an occasional protest against new undesirable 

 sewage schemes) to prevent the pollution of the mussels while they 

 are on the beds. 



The other alternative is the prohibition of the gathering of shell- 

 fish from beds known to be seriously polluted. This alternative 

 was tried by the Lancashire and Western Committee as long ago as 

 1904, when they drafted a by-law for the closing of a polluted 

 mussel bed for an indefinite period. This particular bed was subject 

 to contamination of the grossest possible kind ; several cases of 

 enteric fever were proved conclusively to have resulted from the 

 consumption of mussels removed from it. These facts were not in 

 dispute. In drafting the proposed by-law the Committee relied 

 on their powers under the Acts of 1888 and 1891 and 1894. Ac- 

 cording to the Act of 1891 (54 and 55 Vict., c. 37), " The powers 

 of a local fisheries committee shall extend to making by-laws to be 

 observed in their district . . . prohibiting . . . entirely the fishing 

 for or taking of . . .any specified kinds of sea fish . . . during 

 any period." The Act of 1888 states that the expression " sea fish " 

 shall include . . . mussels, cockles and other kinds of crustaceans 

 and shellfish. 



The' Act of 1894 (57 and 58 Vict., c. 26) states, " The powers of a 

 local fisheries committee shall extend to . . . the fixing of the . . . 

 condition at which shellfish may not be removed from a fishery." 

 One would have thought that these two clauses taken together 

 would have proved sufficient to render possible the prevention of 

 the removal of mussels known to be grossly contaminated with 

 deleterious bacteria, and, as the " condition " of each individual 

 mussel could not be the subject of an independent bacteriological 

 examination before it was put in the musseler's bag, the only alter- 



