16 



Appendices to Thirty-seventh Annual Report 



tion is carried out, and in too many cases the works after completion 

 are neglected and fall into disrepair. Where no assistance from 

 State funds is given, there is an entire absence of even this shadowy 

 measure of obligation to maintain works in a state of repair. In the 

 case of the smaller harbours it is pleaded that the available funds are 

 insufficient to meet the many repairs, and unless grants are provided — 

 as they are in many cases by the Board — the works ultimately 

 fall into ruin and have to be reconstructed at great cost, while the 

 fisheries languish through the diminished interest of the particular 

 community in their inefficient harbour. With some simple and 

 properly organised system of State supervision much of this indiffer- 

 ence to the decline of our fishery harbours would disappear. Not 

 only would there be more revenue available for the maintenance of 

 these harbours, but interest would be stimulated, local enterprise 

 encouraged to an extent not hitherto realised, and loans borrowed 

 from the State repaid. 



On the institution of the Development Commission provision 

 was made on the Vote of the Fishery Board for Scotland for the 

 remuneration of a Consulting Engineer and Clerk of Works with the 

 most satisfactory results to all concerned, as the expenditure of the 

 grants and loans made by the Commissioners has been closely super- 

 vised and defects have been duly reported and made good. No pay- 

 ments are made out of public sources except on the certificate of the 

 Consulting Engineer that the sum claimed has been properly spent 

 on the scheme approved, and no departure is allowed from plans or 

 specifications without the approval of the Engineer and of the Board. 



(d) Collection of Dues, etc. — It is generally understood that there 

 has been a good deal of laxity on the part of local officials in enforcing 

 the recovery of dues from fishermen who have been in arrear, and also 

 in collecting sums in respect of damage caused to the fabric by reckless 

 navigation of fishing boats and otherwise, and this is probably largely 

 due to the fact that such officials are appointed by the Local Authori- 

 ties (who are partly composed of fishermen and others interested in 

 the industry), and may be dismissed at their pleasure. In these cir- 

 cumstances it is suggested that the appointment and dismissal of such 

 officials should be subject to confirmation by a central Government 

 Authority. 



(e) Conclusion. — Any scheme for placing these fishery harbours on a 

 sound administrative basis should deal with the subject in a sym- 

 pathetic way, keeping in view that the fishermen who constitute the 

 bulk of the communities concerned are not by training quite familiar 

 wfth modern methods of business, and have to be guided and en- 

 couraged in the observance of such methods as would give the best 

 results. Probably some State aid would in the first instance be 

 necessary to put the various harbours into a proper state of repair, 

 and to establish a system of supervision, but this aid need not be of 

 long duration, as under a proper system the revenues that are meantime 

 lost through want of control and inefficient collection, together with the 

 increased revenue arising from an improved harbour, would be more 

 than enough to maintain most of the harbours. 



The scheme should be organised on the simplest and most modern 

 lines, financial returns being made on forms provided by the State, 

 and a few inspectors would be sufficient to supervise the system by 



