64 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tion, equipment and work of our scientific department had 

 just been reported upon very fully by the Treasury 

 Committee which sat two years ago under the chairman- 

 ship of Mr. H. J. Tennant, M.P. I think it may be said 

 that our arrangements generally were approved of, and 

 that it was felt by the Committee of Enquiry that local 

 effort on the West coast was worthy of recognition and 

 Government support. No action has, as yet, been taken 

 upon the report of Mr. Tennant's Committee. 



A change of considerable importance is, however, at 

 present being brought about in the organisation and 

 direction of official sea-fisheries research in this country, 

 which it is to be hoped may lead to the West coast 

 receiving in the near future somewhat the same measure 

 of recognition and financial support as has been given 

 during the last decade to similar scientific fisheries work 

 on the eastern and the southern coasts of England. 



It is to be hoped that before long under the new 

 auspices a detailed survey of our British fishing grounds, 

 and of all waters within the territorial area, will be 

 undertaken, and it is essential that such work at sea as 

 has been carried on of late — for example, by our own 

 Committee in the Irish Sea — should be continued, and 

 even increased and improved. Almost every department 

 of our work requires further financial support. We 

 require a Naturalist to take charge of the observational 

 work on the " James Fletcher," and we require a 

 Chemical Assistant to carry on the investigations which 

 have been so kindly undertaken for us in the past by 

 Dr. Bassett. A more detailed statement of the existing 

 laboratory and other scientific equipment for sea-fisheries 

 investigation, now available for public service on the 

 shores of the Irish Sea, was given in the Introduction to 

 our last Report, and need not now be repeated. 



