Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-10-18
GOOD WORK OF THE
BOARD Of Fisheries.
Norfolk Landmark)


One of the State Boards that have
managed their work with efficiency and
without wrangling is the State Board
of Fisheries. This institution labors
very hard and gets little notice, yet the
interests it safeguards and develops
are among the most important in the
Commonwealth. If the Board of Fish
cries were allowed more latitude by
the Legislature, and if that body paid
more attention to the Boards wise rec
concentrations as to protective and
stimulating statutes, the industry con-
cerned would be worth many times
more than it now is to the State and
the people.
The present Board of Fisheries has
been in office a year and half, un-
der the direction of Mr.. w. Mcdonald
Lee, as Chairman. This Board, I'M
like some of its predecessors, has
enjoyed no special appropriations.
The regular allowance Of $40, 900 bien-
nially from the State Treasury for the
expences of the Board has been ex-
ceeded by the sum of $8,517 during the
life of the present Board, the money
having been expended for the purchase
of gasoline boats, repairs to old steam
ers In the fisheries service, and the
operation of the new flagship Com
modore Maury," for which the General
Assembly, presumably by oversight, had
made no provision. This is the alleged
deficit" about which there was a
short-lived effort to create excitement
a month or two ago.
AS matter of fact, the present Board.
instead of having deficit, has broken
all records in increasing the States
revenue from fisheries. For the wear
ending September 3Oth, 1907, the col
lections of the Board amounted to $780,
4S0, or $25, 900 more than for the year
previous. This means that, instead of
having deficit, the Board turns over
to the State for the last fiscal year
net profit of S66, 900, and for
fiscal year of 1906 a net profit
of $40, 0O0-making total net profit for
the two years of Sl15, 900 after deduct
ing the SS,517 of expenditure in ad-
dition to the regular appropriation.
1t is noteworthy that the State of
Virginia now gets back from the fish
cries department three dollars for every
dollar it spends A decade ago it got
back two dollars for every dollar of
outlay. This shows that the expendi-
ture of money in the protection and
development of the fisheries of the
State has long been profitable in direct
financial return, to say nothing of the
indirect benefit, and that it is steadily
becoming more profitable under the able
administration of the department.
However all experts on the subject
agree that the State could make a great
deal more money out of its fisheries
if it did not look for any direct returns
in cash. If the State Board were able
to spend all its income on the work of
policing the oyster waters, enforcing
the protective laws, and generally
fostering the fisheries of the State as an
1 '~SSAy, ShS AisNiA CT ASIuIIlS III Tie way
of increased prosperity and increased
taxable values would be far in excess of
anything it could ever collect directly
in cash from the industry itself.
The obstacle to putting Virginia in
the forefront of enlightening policy in
the supervision of her fisheries has al
ways been ard is now the difficulty of
making the cup State" people see the
point. The VIRGINIA CITIZEN pleads
for the papers of the western part of
the State Ito educate their readers
into a different way of thinking. If
they are not willing for the States
preserves to be self-supporting and
the dividends applied to permanent inn
provement, do not exact three dollars
for one; 100 per cent would satisfy any
reasonable craving" The Landmark
heartily echoes this plea. Virginia will
kill the goose that lays the golden egg
If she does not give her fisheries depart
ment more liberal financial support and
help nature with wise revision of the
fisheries legislation. AS to what the
details of this revision should be, we
can see no course so reasonable and
promising as to follow the future rec
concentrations of the present conspicu-
ously competent State Board.