ADMINISTRATION IN ENGLAND 109 



an administrative staff consisting of a superin- 

 tendent and about thirty fishery officers, and is 

 provided with a steamer and some half-dozen 

 saiHng cutters for police superintendence at sea. 

 There is also a scientific staff, consisting of an 

 honorary head and two assistants, with the usual 

 laboratory aid. The income of the Committee 

 in 1902 was £7717, and there were seventy-four 

 convictions for infractions of the by-laws. Com- 

 pare with this the condition of the Glamorgan 

 District during the same year, when the income 

 was only ^241, the administrative staff consisted 

 of one officer, and no convictions at all were 

 obtained. 



It is generally agreed that the system under 

 which the regulation of the fisheries is obtained 

 by rates levied on the maritime counties is not 

 altogether a fair one. There is at first sight 

 something to be said in favour of the argument 

 that the expense of administration of an industry 

 like sea-fishing should be borne by the areas 

 immediately benefited. But it appears much 

 more reasonable to argue that, since the whole 

 country benefits by the labour of the fisherman, 

 by receiving cheap and abundant food, the task 

 of sustaining and developing the industry should 

 not be left in great measure to the maritime 

 counties, but should be provided for from Imperial 

 sources. It is at any rate an anomaly that such 

 purely inland centres as Manchester or Blackburn 



