PUBLIC FISHERIES FOR SHELLFISH 211 



danger to public health. In an explanatory letter accompanying 

 the regulations the Board say that no opportunity has yet arisen 

 for altering the law affecting the sale of shellfish for human con- 

 sumption in the way recommended by the Royal Commission on 

 Sewage Disposal, so the present Order had been made with a view 

 to the provision of an alternative procedure under powers which 

 the Board already possess. 



Briefly expressed, these regulations empower a local authority 

 (e.g. the Town Councils of Manchester or Birmingham), on receiving 

 a report from their medical officer of health that persons residing 

 in their district are suffering, or have recently suffered, from in- 

 fectious or other disease attributable to shellfish, to require any 

 fishmonger supplying shellfish in the district to furnish within a 

 reasonable time a list of all the layings from which his supply is 

 derived or has been derived within the last six weeks. 



If the suspected shellfish be traced (e.g. to Morecambe or Conway), 

 the local authority in which the disease has broken out, or in which 

 the shellfish are suspected, shall make a representation to the local 

 authority from whose area the suspected shellfish are obtained. 

 The latter authority, in the purely hypothetical case under con- 

 sideration, the Town Council of Morecambe or Conway, must then 

 give notice in the case of public fisheries, to all persons interested 

 to appear before them, within a period of not less than twenty-one 

 days, to show cause why an Order should not be made prohibiting 

 the distribution for sale for human consumption of shellfish brought 

 from the suspected layings, unless such shellfish have been re-laid 

 in pure water for such period as the local authority may direct. 

 If the fishermen cannot prove their shellfish to be above suspicion 

 then the local authority (the Town Counc'l of Morecambe) shall 

 forthwith make an Order. If the local authority in whose area the 

 shellfish beds are situate fail to carry out the regulations, then 

 the complaining local authority (Town Council of Manchester) may 

 appeal to the Local Government Board, and the Board, if satisfied 

 after enquiry that an Order should be made, may require the 

 recalcitrant local authority in whose area the beds are situate to 

 make such Order as the Board may direct. The regulations provide 

 for the right of appeal to the Local Government Board against an 

 Order by any person interested. When the Order has been made 

 by the local authority under the regulations, any person who for 

 human consumption sells, exposes, distributes, or offers for sale, 

 or has in his possession for the purpose of sale contrary to the Order, 

 shellfish brought from the beds, is liable to a penalty not exceeding 

 £100, and in the case of a continuing offence to a further penalty 

 not exceeding ;f5o for every day during which the offence continues. 



