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the men at Ramsgate on this point. The vessels come in and anchor off Hope Point, and if there happens
to be no moon they go fishing in Pegwell Bay and the Ramsgate district without any lights up.
''I think it would be an advantage to have an old torpedo boat to patrol the district between
Ramsgate and Dungeness at irregular times." "I think there should be something of that kind
between the months of July, August and September." Q. 6724: "That is the time when this
poaching takes place ? "—" When the flat fish are most valuable, yes."
Q. 7137 : "The Dutch people do not gut their plaice ? "—" Not the small plaice."
Q. 7138: "That is a very important point for the inspector? "—" It is, but there is not any
general instruction or anything to enforce gutting. Personally, I am of opinion that as far as possible
it should be made compulsory."
Q. 7139: "The effect of a small plaice not being gutted is that it arrives in a state of putrefaction
earlier ? "—" That is so."
Q. 7140: " And, therefore, unless the inspector is there on the spot, and watches, it enters into
the public stomach, does it not, and it may do a lot of harm to the individual as well as to the industry ?
—" Yes, but as a rule the small plaice are taken to the fried fish shops."
Q. 7141: "The poor suffer?" "I think, as a market authority, we are favourable to the
gutting of all fish coming to the market, especially the flat fish."
Q. 7172: "Do you get a very large number of what you might call undersized fish at Billingsgate
? "—" Not so much as we did formerly. A few years back there was a complaint that the steamer
companies had been going to the breeding grounds over against the Danish coast and part of the German
coast, and they did bring some, but they have given that up and most of the Grimsby people have
also. What is done now largely is that the Danish fishermen, with small motor boats, go there, catch
the small fish and send them to our market."
Q. 7174: " What kind of fish would these be?"—"Chiefly small plaice."
Q. 7175: "Do they go to fried fish shops?"—"Yes, the bulk of them go into the fried fish
shops. If they had to gut the small plaice it would not be worth while. I am in favour of the
compulsory gutting of flat fish and small fish."
Q. 7176: " And compulsory on whom?"—"On all the fishing industry to gut the fish at sea ;
and it would not be worth their while to do it and bring in the small ones."
Q. 7177: "You should make it compulsory to gut at sea, and it would be a boon on sanitary
grounds, on the grounds of health and everything else, and it would largely stop the catching of these
small plaice and other small fish."
Q. 7304 and 7305: "And they sent this- undersized fish to Billingsgate Market. Owing
to the costers attending the market, who could sell the very small fish in the East End of London where
there was a market ? "—" Yes."
Q. 7306: "And sometimes make 2s. for six stone and sometimes make 10s., and was it not
often the case that the buyer took the containing fish from the top row and left the remainder in the
market for manure ? "—" I have heard it."
Q. 7307: "Was not that the reason for their promoting these Bills to stop that destruction? "—
" They agreed amongst themselves not to go to the grounds where these fish were caught."
Q. 7308 : " That was afterwards? "
Q. 7309: "When the Government failed to carry out their desires, they (the fishermen themselves)
entered into a voluntary agreement to keep off those grounds and did so for some years ? "—" Until
some one broke through."
Q. 7313: "Is it not a fact that the Danes are sending hundreds of boxes of flat undersized fish
into Billingsgate, sometimes amounting to as many as a thousand cases a day ? "—" I did not
know that."
(b) Questions specially dealing with risk of pollution.
Q. 765: "Do the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries receive complaints of pollution from the
sewer outfalls ?"—"Yes, constantly and especially in connection with oyster and mussel fisheries."
Q. 1258: Relates to the Solent shell fish beds.—" There is no portion of the whole of these beds
which is not really open to pollution.? "—" No."
Q. 1263 : " The oyster does not object to the pollution ? "—" Not a bit, not the slightest."
Q. 1363: "I think probably our district (southern local fisheries) suffers a little more than
others in that respect, because we have so many promising watering-places along the salubrious coast
that we are getting nothing but sewers all the way along."
Q. 1382: "You cannot say, then, whether the sewage affects the fish badly or not ? "—" Oh,
I do not know, really; the fish appear to me—certainly some particular kinds of fish—to go to the
sewage for food."
Q. 1391: "And Poole Harbour and Langston Harbour?"—"All those places are enclosed ;
they are all either threatened or spoiled by sewage at this moment; all of them."
Q. 1885: "But the real fact is this : the so-called pollution is what the fish live upon."
Q. 1946: "In the Port of London they do not allow any whitebaiting whatsoever " ; and
Q. 1947: " That part of the Port of London, then, ;s a sort of sanctuary for whitebait ? "—" It is, sir."
Q. 2126: "There is still another source from which whitebait might come, because sometimes
in August and September they are driven out on the shore by the ton by the mackerel? "—" I do
not know what condition they would be in." Q. 2127: "They are quite all right; all hoppuig
about ? " " Yes."
Q. 2776: "What is the cause of the disappearance of the local mussel beds? "—" The water