8. The fisheries of Scotland are further regulated by special Acts, enforcing a closetime for herrings on the west coast of Scotland, and prohibiting circle-net fishing for herrings for all Scotland. In consequence of the report of the royal commissioners appointed to inquire into trawling for herrings, in 1861, and of the further representations made by ourselves in 1864, the Close Time Act has now been repealed for the greater part of the west coast of Scotland. We consider both of these Acts to be as useless for their professed object, as they have been oppressive in their practical working.

9. We have carefully examined into the system of branding carried on by the Scotch Fishery Board, and we have arrived at very definite convictions, which cannot be expressed better than in the words of the minute made by the Lords of the Treasury, ten years ago:— "We are of opinion that the time has now arrived when the fishing trade may be entirely thrown open, and the artificial system created by the brand of the fishery board may be abolished, substituting for it the sounder system already adopted with regard to all other articles of trade. With this will cease all necessity for an establishment, because we do not consider that it falls within the functions of such a department to keep order, on shore or afloat, among the fishermen ; or to enforce the observance of conventions between this country and foreign powers."

10. The Convention Act applies only to English and French fishermen, and does not effect the numerous Dutch and other fishermen who fish in the same waters. With respect to the scope of this Act, it is so framed that the highest legal authorities differ upon two very essential points; firstly, as to whether it does or whether it does not possess force within the three-mile limit; secondly, how far it applies merely to the seas geographically between England and France, and how far it has force in the other waters which surround the British islands. And with regard to the substance of the regulations laid down in the Act, we find that the greater part of them are not, and never have been, attended to by any person; and that those which interfere with modes and times of fishing are frequently impracticable, and would be injurious if put in practice. We

entertain no doubt, therefore, that this Act, as a whole, ought to be repealed.

11. We conceive, however, that it would be of great advantage to make certain articles of the Convention Act the basis of a special Sea Fisheries Police Act, embracing the following provisions :

1. All fishing boats shall be numbered.

There shall be a series of numbers for the fishing boats belonging to each collectorship of customs in the United Kingdom; and to these numbers shall be prefixed the initial letters of the names of the respective collectorships or districts.

2. Whereas there are in the United Kingdom several collectorships of customs, the names of which begin with the same letter, in which case the initial letter alone would not suffice; the distinguishing letter or letters for the boats of each collectorship or district shall be designated by the Board of Customs in the United Kingdom.

3. The letters and numbers shall be placed on each bow of the boat, three or four inches below the gunnel, and they shall be painted in white oil colours on a black ground.

For boats of fifteen tons burthen and upwards, the dimensions of these letters and numbers shall be eighteen inches in height, and two and a half in breadth.

For boats of less than fifteen tons burthen, the dimensions shall be ten inches in height and one and three quarters inch in breadth.

The same letters and numbers shall also be painted on each side of the mainsail of the boat in black oil colour on white sails, and in white oil colour on tanned or black sails.

These letters and numbers on the sails shall be one-third larger in every way than those placed on the bows of the boat.

4. All the buoys, barrels, and principal floats of each net, and all other implements of fishery, shall be marked with the same letters and numbers as those of the boats to which they belong.

These letters and numbers shall be large enough to be easily distinguished. The owners. of nets or other fishing implements may further distinguish them by any private marks they judge proper.

5. The letters and numbers of fishing boats shall be inserted on the licences of those boats,

after having been entered in the registry book kept at the collectorship of customs.

6. The licences of fishing boats shall contain the description and tonnage of each boat, as well as the names of its owners and of its master.

7. The fishermen shall, when required, exhibit their licences or muster rolls to the commanders of the fishery cruisers, and to all other persons appointed to superintend the fisheries.

8. The name of each fishing boat, and that of the port to which she belongs, shall be painted in white oil colour on a black ground on the stern of the said boat, in letters which shall be at least three inches in height, and half an inch in breadth.

9. It is forbidden to efface, cover, or conceal, in any manner whatsoever, the letters, numbers, and names placed on the boats and on their sails.

10. The masters of all vessels fishing at night shall hoist on one of their masts two lights, one over the other, three feet apart. These lights shall be kept up between sunset and sunrise.

11. All fishermen are forbidden, except in cases of absolute necessity, to show lights under ary other circumstances than those mentioned in the present regulations.

12. No boat shall be made fast or held on to the nets, buoys, floats, or to any part of the fishing tackle, belonging to another boat.

13. It is forbidden to all persons to hook or lift up the nets, lines, or other fishing implements belonging to others under any pretence whatsoever.

14. When nets of different boats get foul of each other, the masters of the said boats shall not cut them, except by mutual consent, unless it shall have been found impossible to clear them by other means.

15. In all cases of damage by fouling, trawlers, decked-boat drift fishermen, and circlenet fishermen, shall be held responsible, unless they can prove themselves to be free from blame.

16. All fixed nets and long lines shall be buoyed. If left down at night without a properly lighted boat attached to them, no responsibility shall attach to trawlers and drift fishermen who damage them by working over them.

17. All fishing boats, all rigging, gear, or other appurtenances of fishing boats, all nets, buoys, floats, or other fishing implements whatsoever, found or picked up at sea, shall, as soon as possible, be delivered either to the owner, or to the collector of customs of the district to which the salvor belongs.

18. The collector of customs shall restore the articles saved to the owners thereof, or to their representatives.

These functionaries may, when the circumstances are such as to call for it, award to the salvors a suitable compensation for their trouble and care. This compensation, which shall in

no case exceed one-fourth of the actual value of the articles saved, shall be paid by the

That the supply of oysters has very greatly fallen off during the last three or four years.

That this decrease has not arisen from overfishing, nor from any cause over which man has direct control, but from the very general failure of the spat, or young of the oyster; which appears, during the years in question, to have been destroyed soon after it was produced. A similar failure of the spat has frequently happened before, and probably will often happen again.

That the best mode of providing against the effects of these periodical failures of the spat is to facilitate the proceedings of those individuals, or companies, who may desire to acquire so much property in favourably situated portions of the sea bottom, as may suffice to enable them safely to invest capital, in preparing and preserving these portions of the sea bottom for oyster culture. By which term oyster culture is implied, not the artificial breeding of oysters, in the manner in which salmon are bred artificially, but the collection of the brood in years when that brood is plentiful, and its preservation by the application of due skill and care, as a source of supply during

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the years when the spat fails-a practice in Vogue among British fishermen from time immemorial.

That no regulations, or restrictions upon oyster fishing, beyond such as may be needed for the object just defined, have had, or are likely to have, any beneficial effect upon the supply of oysters.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

In consonance with the conclusions enumerated above, we humbly submit the following recommendations to your Majesty :

I. We advise that all Acts of Parliament which profess to regulate, or restrict, the modes of fishing pursued in the open sea be repealed; and that unrestricted freedom of fishing be permitted hereafter.

II. With respect to the inshore fishing: although the evidence, so far as it is conclusive, appears to us to prove that the taking of small and immature fish has not yet produced any injurious effect upon the fisheries; it is undoubtedly possible, that by the use of improved engines, the destruction of fry might reach such a pitch, as to bear a large, instead of, as at present, an insignificant ratio to the destruction effected by the natural enemies of fish, and by conditions unfavourable to their existence.

The existence of such a state of things, however, could only be determined by the examination of trustworthy statistics of the fisheries in question, extending over a considerable number of years. Should it ever be satisfactorily proved to have arisen, we conceive that the best remedial measure would be to place a restriction upon the size of the fish permitted to be brought ashore, and to subject the possessor of fish below a certain specified size, to penalties; but to avoid interfering with the implements of fishermen, or with their methods of fishing.

For the present, we advise that all Acts of Parliament which profess to regulate, or restrict the modes of fishing pursued in-shore be repealed; with the exceptions, purely on grounds of police, of the local Act regulating pilchard fishing at St. Ives; and, for that part of Loch Fyne which lies above Otter Spit, of the Act prohibiting trawling for herrings in Scotland.

III. While we do not consider it expedient to impose any general restrictions upon the

fishing of inshore oyster or mussel beds, we strongly recommend that every legislative assistance be given to individuals, or corporations, who may desire to form private beds for oyster, or mussel, culture.

In doing this, it will be necessary to keep two objects in view-In the first place, to provide a means by which companies, or individuals, may easily acquire such a title to adequate portions of the sea bottom as may make it worth their while to expend capital in stocking and tending the fishery. In the second place, to see that, in so doing, preexisting rights of fishery are not unduly interfered with; and, especially, that the property in the sea bottom so acquired, does not extend so far as to confer a virtual monopoly of the whole productive area.

We are disposed to think that the most convenient course would be to empower a public board to grant leases of the sea bottom, after making proper inquiry into the circumstances of each case. Such power should only be exercised after proper notice to the public at the place proposed to be so dealt with, and with due consideration of the interests of the existing fishing population; and an appeal from the decision of the board should be given to the Privy Council, whose decision should be final and conclusive as to any claim of the public to dredge, or fish, over the ground so granted. Grants made by the board should be for a limited number of years only; and should be voidable after a certain number of years, on its being proved to the board that they had not been acted upon. Where a valuable fishery now exists beyond low-water mark, no grant of exclusive fishing should be made without the sanction of Parliament; and it would be more satisfactory to the public of the place where any such appropriation might be contemplated, if proceedings were first commenced before the board, and an inquiry on the spot held by them, or by some person duly authorized by them. The various schemes approved by the board might, we think, be embodied in a general Act, with short reports on the individual cases.

IV. We think it a matter of great importance that fishery statistics should be systematically collected. It is only by such means, that the constant recurrence of the panics to

which the sea fishery interest has hitherto been subjected can be prevented, and that any trustworthy conclusion can be arrived at regarding the effects of the modes of fishing which are in use. It is probable that the existing coastguard, or customs, organization might be utilized to collect fishery statistics, as is now to some extent the case in Ireland.

V. With reference to the police of the fisheries, we advise that an Act be passed embodying the substance of the provisions enumerated above.

We recommend that the due enforcement of this Act should be confided to the Lords of the Admiralty, who should place cruisers, of such a character as the nature of the stations may indicate, on such fishing stations as may require their presence. The commanders of such cruisers should receive and report upon all complaints that may be made by fishermen, or others, respecting the falling-off of the supply of fish in consequence of alleged injurious practices; or respecting the interferences of fishermen, one with another, not remediable by ordinary process of law.

VI. Finally, we advise that all restrictions which prevent foreign fishermen from entering British or Irish ports for the sale of fish, be removed in Great Britain and Ireland; and that measures be taken to secure the like freedom for British fishermen in foreign ports.

JAMES CAIRD, THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, GEORGE SHAW LEFEVRE.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS, IRELAND. The estimated Average Produce of the Crops, also the Emigration from Ireland in the year 1865, and the number of Mills for Scutching Flax in each County and Province. THE acreage under crops in 1865, as compared with 1864, shows that wheat decreased by 9,494 acres; oats, 69,658 acres; turnips, 3,143 acres; and flax, 50,260 acres. Barley increased by 4,402 acres; bere and rye, 1,197 acres; potatoes, 26,536 acres; mangel-wurzel, 316 acres; cabbage, 1,801 acres; and hay, 68,924 acres. The total net decrease in the area of these crops being 29,379 acres. The crops which show a diminution in the estimated acreable produce in 1865, compared with 1864, were-Wheat, which decreased 0.3 cwt.; |

In cereals there was a total decrease of 246,667 quarters, of which 48,999 were wheat; 166,605 oats, 29,892 barley, and 1,171 bere; rye increased by 5,684 quarters; potatoes, notwithstanding an increased acreage in 1865, gave a total produce less by 446,398 tons, caused by a decrease in the average yield per acre; turnips decreased by 165,976 tons, owing to a smaller acreage and also to a reduction in the acreable yield; flax also shows a decrease of 24,945 tons, from the same causes; mangel-wurzel gives an increase of 44,653 tons, cabbage of 52,877 tons, and hay 461,554 tons, owing to a larger area and produce per acre in 1865, compared with 1864.

The total extent under each of the principal crops in 1864 and 1865, was as follows:Wheat in 1864, 276,483 acres, in 1865, 266,989 acres; oats in 1864, 1,814,886 acres, in 1865, 1,745,228 acres; barley in 1864, 172,700 acres, in 1865, 177,102 acres; bere and rye in 1864, 8,894 acres, in 1865, 10,091 acres; potatoes in 1864, 1,039,724 acres, in 1865, 1,066,260 acres; turnips in 1864, 337,355 acres, in 1865, 334,212 acres; mangel-wurzel in 1864, 14,073 acres, in 1865, 14,389 acres; cabbage in 1864, 31,821 acres, in 1865, 33,622 acres; flax in 1864, 301,693 acres, in 1865, 251,433 acres; hay in 1864, 1,609,569 acres, in 1865, 1,678,493 acres.

The estimated produce per statute acre of the principal crops in 1864 and 1865, was as follows:-Wheat in 1864, 13-3 cwts., in 1865, 13.0 cwts.; oats in 1864, 12.1 cwts., in 1865, 12.3 cwts.; barley in 1864, 15.9 cwts., in 1865, 14.9 cwts.; bere in 1864, 16-4 cwts., in 1865, 14.8 cwts.; rye in 1864, 8·5 cwts., in 1865, 104 cwts.; potatoes in 1864, 41 tons, in 1865, 3.6 tons; turnips in 1864, 10-3 tons, in 1865, 9.9 tons; mangel-wurzel in 1864, 10-5 tons, in 1865, 13-3 tons; cabbages in 1864, 9-3 tons, in 1865, 10-4 tons; flax in 1864, 34.2 stones of 14 lbs., in 1865, 25.2 stones of 14 lbs. ; hay in 1864, 1.6 tons, in 1865, 1.8 tons.

The total produce of the principal crops

grown in 1864 and 1865 was as follows:Wheat in 1864, 875,782 qrs., in 1865, 826,783 qrs.; oats in 1864, 7,826,332 qrs., in 1865, 7,659,727 qrs.; barley in 1864, 761,909 qrs., in 1865, 732,017 qrs.; bere in 1864, 15,160 qrs., in 1865, 13,989 qrs.; rye in 1864, 12,680 qrs., in 1865, 18,364 qrs.; potatoes in 1864, 4,312,388 tons, in 1865, 3,865,990 tons; turnips in 1864, 3,467,659 tons, in 1865, 3,301,683 tons; mangel-wurzel in 1864, 147,284 tons, in 1865, 191,937 tons; cabbages in 1864, 297,375 tons, in 1865, 350,252 tons; flax in 1864, 64,506 tons, in 1865, 39,561 tons; hay in 1864, 2,607,153 tons, in 1865, 3,068,707 tons.

The barometer was highest during the year 1865, at 9.30 A.M., on the 15th of December, when it stood at 30.827,-the wind blowing from the S.W.; it was lowest on the 14th of January, at the same hour, with the wind from the W.N.W.,—when it was 28-540 inches. The highest temperature in the air during the year was 83.9° on the 22nd of June, and the lowest 20-4° on the 20th of January. Rain or snow fell on 178 days, being nearly six. months of wet days in the year; the greatest rainfall in 24 hours was 1.355 inches on the 10th of August, with the wind from the S.W. The prevailing wind was from the W., from which point it blew for 99 days; from the S.W. it came for 75 days; from E., 60; S., 26; S.E., 25; N., 25; N.E., 23; and N. W., 18; and it was calm 14 days. The total pressure of the W. wind was 147.58 lbs., being an average of 1-49 lbs. to the square foot. The strongest wind blew from the S.W. on the 30th December, when the pressure was 36 lbs. per square foot.

The number of emigrants leaving the ports of Ireland in 1865, was 103,096, of whom 56,206 were males, and 46,890 females. The total number who emigrated in 1864 was 114,903, there was thus a decrease in 1865 of 11,807.

CHURCH ESTATES COMMISSIONERS.

Fifteenth Report from the Church Estates Com

missioners.

THE commissioners reported that they transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England during the past year a sum of 50,000.,

in respect of the surplus proceeds of enfranchisements completed. The aggregate amount paid over or transferred to the account of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was 1,250,2071. 2s. 2d., in addition to 140,0007. in respect of interest which has accrued on the surplus.

The commissioners had reported last year that the transactions approved by them, between August 1851 and March 1865, were 2,638 in number, and that the value in fee of the estates so agreed to be dealt with amounted to about 10,310,000. During this year they approved the terms agreed upon in 105 cases; 98 being cases of sales of reversions, and 7 cases of purchases of leasehold interests, and the value in fee of the estates so agreed to be dealt with is approximately 850,000l. The aggregate number of cases approved by them was therefore 2,742, and the value of the property dealt with amounts to about 10,660,000l. In three cases they declined to approve the terms proposed; but in two of these the terms have been modified so as to meet with their sanction, and they have been included in the number above stated to have been approved.

METROPOLITAN POLICE.

Return of all Cases which have come to the Cognizance of the Metropolitan Police, whereby since the 1st of January, 1865, up to the present time any Person has been run over and killed, or maimed, or otherwise injured by any Carriage within the District and the Superintendence of the said Force. (The Marquess of Westmeath.) 26th February, 1866.) (45L.)

In

THE number of persons run over and killed in the year 1865 was 140; maimed or injured, 1,707. In the two months, January and February, 1866, the number killed was 23; the number maimed or injured, 231. 1865 the number killed by horses in vehicles being driven, 124; in which the vehicles were led, 16; the number maimed or injured in which the vehicles were driven was 1,647, and led, 60. In January and February, 1866, the number killed in which the carriages were driven was 20, led, 3; the number maimed or injured in which the carriages were driven was 218, and led, 13.