8o BRITISH FISHERIES 



(" maiden " herrings — those in which the ovaries 

 and testes are not fully developed). 



Now, the branding system, though it continues 

 in operation to the present day, was the subject of 

 a long-standing dispute between the Treasury and 

 the Fishery Board. One gathers that the ob- 

 jections which the former body made to it were 

 not at first based on principles of political economy, 

 but had their origin in the reluctance of the 

 governments of the time to maintain an expensive 

 fisheries establishment on the coasts of Scotland at 

 Imperial expense. But later on the Treasury seem 

 to have decided that the perpetuation of the 

 branding system was directly opposed to sound 

 principles of economy, and they deputed Mr (after- 

 wards Sir) John Lefevre to make inquiry into the 

 grounds for its retention. This gentleman came 

 to the conclusion that the discontinuance of the 

 system was likely to cause " serious derangement 

 and contraction of that [herring curing] trade, 

 and consequent loss and inconvenience to those 

 engaged in it, and to the large bodies of the 

 working classes employed, not only in fishing, but 

 also in the various operations of curing for the 

 European market." ^ He recommended that it be 

 maintained, but, recognising that it was, " in effect, 

 a bounty on the export white herring trade at the 



1 Board of Fisheries (Scotland) : Copy of Reports, etc., on the 

 Subject of the Fishery Board in Scotland, with correspondence, 

 printed in 1856. 



