236 BRITISH FISHERIES 



to this advice, and though for a time the figures 

 collected were not published, they were kept in 

 manuscript form and were still accessible. When 

 the Fishery Board was reorganised in 1882 the 

 statistical system was retained, and has since then 

 been greatly improved and extended ; and since 

 1885 the officers of the Board have possessed 

 statutory powers ^ to demand statements of all fish 

 landed and cured in Scotland, from all persons 

 engaged in the sea-fishing trade in that country. 



The statistical system thus elaborated has 

 furnished a mass of information of the utmost 

 value, not only to those engaged in the adminis- 

 tration of the Scottish fisheries, but to those in- 

 vestigating general questions relating to the natural 

 conditions under which the industry is carried on, 

 and is the most elaborate and complete system 

 adopted by any fisheries authority. The method 

 of collection resembles that adopted later on in 

 England, but it is much more thorough, and the 

 persons responsible for obtaining the information 

 are aided greatly by the possession of statutory 

 powers enabling them to demand compulsory 

 returns. There are a number of correspondents 

 stationed all round the coast, who make daily state- 

 ments of the quantity of fish landed and of the 

 numbers of boats and men engaged in the fisheries 

 in their districts. These correspondents are super- 



1 Conferred by the Sea-Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Act of 

 1885. 



