248 TRANS ACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



1900 .. 



. 2,960 



1905 .. 



1,050 



1901 .. 



. 3,127 



1906 .. 



. 1,762 



1902 .. 



. 2,605 



1907 .. 



. 1,593 



1903 .. 



. 2,189 



1908 .. 



686 



1904 .. 



. 1,378 



1909 .. 



1,400 



Now it is practically certain that the earlier totals 

 are sheer guesswork. From an intimate knowledge of 

 the district I have no hesitation in saying that the totals 

 for 1900 and 1901 are at least twice as high as they 

 ought to be. 



If the official statistics were available in detail it is 

 possible that other similar instances could be quoted. 

 The above remarks are based on the assumption that the 

 annual totals of lobsters (in the Board's memorandum of 

 1910) have been correctly abstracted from the Annual 

 Reports furnished by the Central Authority. But have 

 they? 



A comparison with these annual reports does not 

 tend to reassure one that such is the case. Up to, and 

 including 1902, the official fishery statistics were 

 published by the Board of Trade under the title of 

 " Statistical Tables and Memorandum relating to the 

 Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom." 



In and since 1903 the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries have published the official statistics in the 

 " Annual Report of Proceedings under Acts relating to 

 the Sea Fisheries." 



On comparing the totals in the Board's Memorandum 

 with these official records, we get the following result : — 



