FISHERY STATISTICS 241 



organisation of the official system on such lines as 

 I have indicated would be made. This, however, 

 was not the case. The Committee in their report 

 suggest that the general evidence deprecated the 

 adoption of compulsory powers — a conclusion 

 which few readers who study the evidence will 

 arrive at. The organisation of a scheme founded 

 on compulsory powers would have entailed no 

 little trouble, and an Act of Parliament would have 

 been necessary. It is probable, then, that the 

 general inertia of a Government department pro- 

 vided the reason why the recommendations of the 

 Committee should have presented absolutely no 

 originality. It is also probable that the Committee 

 paid too much attention to the considerations sug- 

 gested in the following questions and answers : — ^ 



" Question 161. {Mr Bence-Jones) You do 

 not think you will get from these captains what 

 you get very often from farmers in the agricultural 

 returns — ' Ask my grandmother ' is not an un- 

 common answer ? — [Mr G. L. A/ward) I am 

 just expecting you will meet with the same results. 

 I have always stated that this^ must be compulsory ; 

 but at the same time I hope the Board will deal 

 with it, if they do get legislation, gingerly, and so 

 get the people to work into it properly. 



"Question 162. Would not such compulsory 



^ Report of the Inter-dept. Committee on Fisherv Statistics, p. 7, 

 Evidence. 



2 Returns of fish caught, etc. 



16 



