FISHERY STATISTICS 225 



of information was commented on and the same 

 recommendations were made.^ Still no attention 

 was given to the question of fishery statistics, and 

 in 1885, when the Trawling Commissioners had 

 completed a lengthy inquiry into the vexed 

 question of the effects of this mode of fishing, 

 further attention was directed to the matter. 

 They regretted " the absence of any official fishery 

 statistics, with the exception of those relating to 

 the herring fishery and the cod and ling fishery of 

 Scotland, The collection of such statistics was 

 recommended by the Royal Commission of 1866, 

 and again by the Commission of 1878. Eighteen 

 years have elapsed since the recommendation of 

 1866 was made, and we are still without official 

 statistics by which the accuracy of statements as 

 to the decrease of fish may be tested." ^ 



Almost while these words were being written, 

 the officials at the Board of Trade were elaborating 

 a scheme for the acquisition of the desired data. 

 The ingenuous reader may imagine that the 

 advice of such men as Huxley, Shaw-Lefevre, Mr 

 Marjoribanks, Frank Buckland, Spencer Walpole, 

 Lord Dalhousie, and Professor M'Intosh had at 

 length borne fruit, and that some credit was to be 

 ascribed to the laborious investigations of these 

 gentlemen. But we are fortunate in possessing an 

 official account of the reasons which induced those 



^ Report of the Fisheries Commission ^1878, p. xxxix. 

 ^ Report of the Trawling Commission, 1885, p. xii. 



IS 



