The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-29 00:00:00

5. THE LICENSING SYSTEM.

By the statute 6 George IV., c. 108, at present in force
" for the regulation of Customs," vessels and boats of
certain descriptions, as well those employed in fishing as
others, are r, quired to be licensed ; and a discretion is
vested in the Commissioners of Customs authorizing them
to grant or to refuse such licenses, and to prescribe within
what distances of the English coast they shall be respec-
tively employed—a system which has heretofore occasioned
great complaint on the part of the fhhermen, as well in
respect of the narrow limits (generally four leagues) from
the English coast, within which they have usually been
restricted in their fishery, as also in respect of the fisher-
men and others who apply for licenses being rendered
dependant upon the opinion of the local officers of Cus-
toms and their private report to the board in London,
whether the party applying was suspected of smuggling,
and therefore not to be deemed a fit person te be licensed ;
or, in other cases, to be favoured with an extension of his
license to within a league of the foreign coast.
These regulations, as practically acted upon by the
Board of Customs until a very recent period, your Com-
mittee believe have been very injurious to the fishermen
and boatmen generally upon the coasts of Kent and Sussex,
not only because many valuable fishing-grounds lie beyond
the prescribed limits and were thus abandoned to foreigners,
but because the system was liable to unfair partiality on
the part of the local officers of Customs ; while the secu-
rities required to be given by the parties applying for
licenses have been found to be oppressive and difficult to
be obtained. And, inasmuch as the owners of foreign
boats could not be placed under similar regulations, but
have continued at all times the free exercise of their right
to traverse all parts of the British Channel from shore to
shore, not only have great advantages of fishing and of
intercourse between this country and France been, in the
opinion of your Committee, unnecessarily abandoned to
the subjects of the latter country, but the desired protec-
tion to the revenue of this country against smuggling has

not been obtained, by season of the natural effect of the
licensing system being to cause the use of foreign vessels
exclusively, whenever a smuggling transaction was to be
undertaken, which would subject the owner of an English
vessel not only to the forfeiture of the vessel, but also to
the penalty of his bond.
Your Committee, however, have been glad to find
that the Board of Customs have lately extended the fishing
licensee generally to within a league of the French and
Dutch coast., and thus the principal cause of complaint,
in reference to this subject, has been removed ; but still
the system of giving bond continues, and the parties
applying Lar licenses remain liable to the secret report,

upon suspicion only, of the local officers of custom;, by
which their applications may, and frt quently are, refused.
Your Committee, therefore, after baying examined the
Surveyor of Customs, Mr. Robilliard, whose duty it is
to superintend the licensing department of that establish-
ment, and having inquired particularly as to the necessity
of the system, from tie most respectable and in.elligent
witnesses conversant Ivith its tffects, deem it their duty to

report, that in their opinion the continuance of the present
system of licenses is injurious and oppressive to the
fishermen, and unnecessary for the protection of the
revenue, and that the same ought to be abolished ; and
they recommend that all fishing vessels and boats should
be allowed to fish at sea as extensively as may be consistent
with the rights of foreign countries, subject always to the
forfeiture of the boat, and such further penalty and
punishment of the offender as are now by law inflicted in
the event of the vessel or boat being employed in smug •
filing ; but that the owners sl ould not be required to give
bond or find sureties for their good conduct in this
particular, which your Committee believe imposes a
serious difficulty upon the poorer classes of fishermen, and,
in the opinion of every witness who has been examined by
your Committee, may be safely dispensed with.
6.—INLAND CARRIAGE OF FISH.
A large portion of the fish caught upon the English
coast being supplied by Lind carriage to the London and in-

land markets, and it being desirable to lessen as much as
possible the expense of such carriage, with a view to extend
the supply of fish inland, and to render better returns to
the fishermen for the quantity of fish so supplied, your
Committee are of opinion that it would greatly assist the

fishing interests if carriages laden with fish . only were
exempt from the payment of turnpike tolls, in addition to
the relief which is at present afforded to them when tra-
velling with post horses, of exemption from the post-
horse duty. Your Committee have some reason to believe
that such exemption from toll was formerly allowed to
fish carriages travelling to and from market, and it bas
been so stated by one of the witnesses examined ; but your
Committee have not been able to find any statute to that
effect.

This exemption, if granted, would particularly relieve

the fisheries at Yarmouth, Harwich, Dover, Folkstone,
and Hastings, and increase their supply of fresh fish, par-
ticularly of mackerel (which requires quick conveyance
to the London market.)

70--THE LONDON FISHHARKILT.

Your Committee have also examined the clerk of the

fish market at Billingsgate, and some salesmen and fish-
mongers who frequent it, in reference to the present state
of the supply of fish to that market, and the regulations
tinder which the market is conducted, with a view to
ascertain, if possible, whether any improper monopoly or
regulations exist affecting the supply of the mat ker, or
tending either to increase the price of fish to the consumer,
or to lessen the fair profits of the fishermen; but your
Committee do not feel that they have fully investigated
the subject, although, from the evidence which has inci-
dentally come before them, it has not appeared that any
such monopoly or injurious regulations exist, either in the
mode of supplying the market or in the tale of fish.
It appears, however, to your Committee to be desirable
Fla* a more efficient remedy than at present exists should
be provided to enable the clerk of the market to prevent
the sate of fish in an improper state to the public, there
being now no other remedy than the forfeiture of the &11,
and the expensive and dilatory proceeding by indictment.
Your Committee, therefore, recommend that a clause
should be inserted in any Bill which may be introduced
upon this subject, inflicting a pecuniary penalty for this
offence, recoverable by summary proceeding before a
magistrate, and to be mitigated at his discretion.
8.--TITHES OF FISH.

In the progress of this inquiry it has been also brought
under the notice of your Committee that tithes of fish
ethaneght at sea, and brought on shore, are in some parts of
asparticularly in Cornwall and Norf.) k, de-
mandeeoclatnd paid, but they are complained of as I burden-
some to the fishermen • and the legality of the claim is
generally questioned,
law. though it said to have been esta-
blished in courts ofevidence,
however, has been
cffered to your Committee to enable them to form any
satisfactory op;nion upon this subject.
z3ISWORTH AND OTHER OYSTERrIISaFiIERIES.
In reference to the petitions which have been d
your Committee respecting the oyster fisheries in the tar.
bouts of Emsworth and Langstone, in the county of }Lots,
and Busham, in the county of Sussex, your Committee
Sod that. not only in those harbours, but in others, a
practice generally prevails, and which
appears to be of
.recent introduction, of persons coming in fishing smack's
from a disianee to dredge for and carry away the young
brood of oysters, and other shell-fish, found in harbours,
to, the great—daiiiage and destruction of the oyster beds,
and the prood_9( 'other S*ll there, and to the serious injury
of the &helmet* itnd inhabitants of the neighbourhood ;
and it appearfiWtii:your Committee that such practice is
itsu uniublii*tntich as the oyster beds in those situation

e

are generally known to have been formed by the labour
and industry of the fishermen and inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, of their ancestors ; thus affording to them
a beneficial source of employment, upon which they have
been accustomed to rely, and in which, therefore, they
ought to be protected. Your Committee have examined
the several statutes for regulating oyster fisheries—namely,
the 31st Geo. 111., c. 51, and the 48th George 111., c.
144, by which latter statute they find that it is rendered
unlawful for any persons so to dredge, or fish for and carry
away the brood of oysters in any oyster fishery being
private property ; but that the provisions of the first-
mentioned statute, which were to the same effect, and
applicable to all oyster fisheries, yet appear to have been
rendered less extensively operative than was intended, by
reaso❑ of an exception contained in it in favour of all
persons who were" lawfully entitled to take oysters" in
such fisheries ; and which, therefore, practically restricted
the operation of this Act to such oyster fisheries only as
were private property. Your Committee, therefore, re-
commend, and think it would be attended with much
public as well as local benefit, and tend greatly to pre.
serve and increase the supply of oysters, if the provisions
of the before mentioned statutes were extended to all beds
or layings of oysters and other shell-fish (not being
private property) situate in any harbour upon the coasts
of this kingdom ; and that it should be declared unlawful
to take and carry away any oysters from such beds of a
less size than are fit for food—that is to say, of less than
two inches and a half in width, or to fish for oysters in
such beds at any time between the first day of May and
the last day of August in every year, or during such other
time as should be fixed in reference to any particular
harbour, according to the season in which the oysters
there become fit for food ; such seasons and all necessary
regulations for those fisheries, being determined and
approved by the magistrates of the county or district in
which they are situate, and enforced by conservators or
officers to be locally appointed for the purpose.
Additional regulations, for the purpose of protecting
the other fisheries in the harbour of Emsworth and Lang-
stone, as regards the catching unsizeable fish, fishing at
improper seasons, and stopping or priming with nets the
ritbs or channels in the harbour, as proposed in the evi-
dence of Charles Mint, Esq., and alluded to in the petition
from Langstone, your Committee are of opinion may he
beneficially adopted and introduced i❑ any Bill hereafter to
be brought forward on this subject.
10. THE DEVON AND CORNWALL PILCHARD SEINE

FISHERIES.

These fisheries appear to your Committee to be of great
importance, and to have received the early attention and
protection of the Legislature. They have lately suffered
great depression and decrease, and are now carried on at a
less, in consequence of a bounty of Bs. 6d. per hogshead
upon pilchards exported having been taken off by the
Government about five or six years ago, at the same time
that a heavy duty upon pilchards imported into the
Neapolitan territories (which is the chief market for this
fish) has been continued, and increased to 18s. 2d. per hogs-
head. This duty amounted in the last year to about
10,0001., and the amount of the bounty formerly allowed
by this Government, if calculated upon an average export
of 30,000 hogsheads, would amount to 13,0001. per annum.
The pilchards are a small fish, very similar to the herring,
and are only found upon parts of the Devon and Cornish
coasts, where they come in large shoals, generally in the
beginning of August or September, and again in November
or December; care being requisite for the protection of
these fisheries that the shoals of pilchards when coming
towards the coast into shallow waters are not broken or
diverted from their course by fishing vessels using floating
or drift.nets within a considerable distance (restricted by
Act of Parliament, 14 Charles 11., c. 28, to a league and
a half) from the shore : the non-observance of which Act
constitutes at present one of the principal grounds of
complaint of the parties interested in these fisheries.
The pilchards caught are immediately salted or pickled,
and exported to foreign markets, chiefly in the Mediterra-
nean, where they are much esteemed; they were formerly
exported to our West Indian colonies.

The number of boats at present engaged in the pilchard
fisheries (including both the seine and drift boats) on the
coast of Cornwall, are proved to be about 1,000, giving
employment to about 3,500 men at sea, and about 5,000
men and women on shore; and before the withdrawal of
the bounty the number of persons so employed is calculated
to have been double the present amount. It is also
considered that a greater number could not have been
beneficially employed in these fisheries, with reference to
the limited average quantity of fish to be taken.
Now, in order to relieve the various parties interested
in these fisheries, it appears to your Committee, in the first
place, to be extremely desirable to obtain, if possible, a re-
duction of the high and increased duty levied by the
Neapolitan Government, but into which subject your
Committee forbear to enter fully, as they understand it is
at present a matter of negotiation between that Govern-
ment and our own ; they think it right however to state
that the witnesses whom they examined upon this point,
concur in rpinion that the duty so imposed occasions a
material check to the trade in pilchards with that part of
the Mediterranean to which nearly one half of the annual
export has usually been consigned; and that some con.
,tession on the part of this country to procure relief from
this duty would be amply compensated by the benefits that
would be conferred on the fishermen and merchants en-
gaged in that trade.
Your Committee would further observe that the Nea-
politan duties also affect materially the Yarmouth herring
fishery, and the export trade in cod fish from Poole, and
are found very oppressive in those ports.
In the next place your Committee recommend that the
provision of the statute 14 Chas. 11. c. 28, which enacts,
" Tbat no person or persons shall in any year, from the
Ist day of June till the last day of November, presume to
take fish in the high sea, or in any bay, port, creek, or
coast, of or belonging to Cornwall or Devon, with any
drift-net, trammel, or stream-net or nets, or any other
nets of that sort or kind, unless it be at the distance of
one league and a half at least from the respective
shores," be duly enforced, and that in such Bill as may
hereafter be brought into the House in reference to the
Channel Fisheries, a power of summary conviction before
the magistrates in Petty Sessions, with sufficient penal-
ties to secure the observance of this law, may be inserted,
and conservators appointed to enforce it. From the
evidence adduced before your Committee, and referring
also to the written statements respecting this fishery which
have been laid before them, and are included in the ap-
pendix to this report, your Committee find that the Pil-
chard Seine Fishery is greatly injured by the continual
infraction of this statute of Charles 11., by the drift net
fishermen, who fish generally far within the distance pre-
scribed by that Act ; and it is represented to your Com-
mittee that this may be effectually prevented if instructions
were given to the revenue cutters at present stationed
upon that coast to compel the drift boats to keep at the
proper distance from the shore ; and that it will be satis-
factory to the parties aggrieved if this protection be
afforded to them from the Ist of August to the middle of
September annually ; a request, as it appears to your
Committee, so reasonable and easy to be complied with,
that they cannot but recommend its adoption.