S6 BRITISH FISHERIES 



of Great Britain, if not of the United Kingdom," 

 and that money should be annually granted by 

 Parliament so as to enable this body to carry out 

 scientific work and collect proper statistics. They 

 also advised that an authority similar to the 

 Scottish Fishery Board should be created for 

 England ; and that, in the meantime, powers to 

 restrict or suspend any mode of fishing, and to 

 spend money on scientific research, should be 

 conferred on the Home Secretary, or on the 

 President of the Board of Trade. 



Now, these recommendations, so far as they 

 related to the Scottish Fishery Board, were 

 carried into effect almost immediately, and that 

 body became a very real and practical fisheries 

 authority. A very different result followed, 

 however, in the case of England, and for several 

 years no attention was paid to the results of the 

 Trawling Commission so far as they affected that 

 country. The Board of Trade did indeed under- 

 take the collection of fisheries statistics in 1885, 

 but this step is stated ^ to have been taken on the 

 initiative of the Duke of Edinburgh, who was 

 then Admiral-Superintendent of Naval Reserves, 

 and who had paid some attention to the matter ; 

 and, following his advice, the Treasury consented 

 to an annual expenditure of ^^500 on the acquisi- 

 tion of this information ! 



^ Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Fishery Statistics, 

 1902, p. V. 



