Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Hall, Edward Marshall

Halsey, Rt. Hon. Thomas F.
Hambro, Charles Eric
Hamilton, Marq.of(L'nd'nderry
Hardy, L. (Kent, Ashford
Hare, Thomas Leigh
Harris, F. Leverton (Tynem'th
Harris, Dr. Fredk. R. (Dulwich
Haslam, Sir Alfred S.
Haslett, Sir James Horner
Hay, Hon. Claude George
Heath, Arthur Howard (Hanl'y
Heath, James (Staffords. N.W.
Heaton, John Henniker
Helder, Augustus
Henderson, Sir A. (Stafford, W.
Hermon-Hodge, Sir Robert T
Hickman, Sir Alfred
Hoare, Sir Samuel
Hogg, Lindsay
Hope, J.F.(Sheffield, Brightside
Horner, Frederick William
3 E

[FOURTH SERIES.]

Myers, William Henry
Newdegate, Francis Ă. N.
Nicholson, William Graham
O'Neill, Hon. Robert Torrens
Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Parkes, Ebenezer
Pease, Herb. Pike (Darlington)
Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley
Percy, Earl
Pierpoint, Robert

Pilkington, Colonel Richard
Platt-Higgins, Frederick
Plummer, Walter R.
Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Pretyman, Ernest George
Pryce-Jones, Lt.-Col. Edward
Purvis, Robert
Pym, C. Guy
Randles, John S.
Rankin, Sir James
Rasch, Sir Frederic Carne
Ratcliff, R. F.

Reid, James (Greenock)
Remnant, James Farquharson
Renwick, George
Richards, Henry Charles
Ridley, Hn. M.W.(Stalybridge)
Ridley, S. Forde (Bethnal Green
Roberts, Samuel (Sheffield)
Robertson, Herbert (Hackney)
Robinson, Brooke
Rolleston, Sir John F L.
Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye
Ropner, Colonel Sir Robert
Rothschild, Hn. Lionel Walter

Round, Rt. Hon. James
Royds, Clement Molyneux
Rutherford, John (Lancashire)
Rutherford, W. W. (Liverpool)
Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford
Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Samuel, Sir H. S. (Limehouse)
Sandys, Lt. Col. Thos. Myles
Sassoon, Sir Edward Albert
Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Edw.J.
Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Seton-Karr, Sir Henry
Sharpe, William Edward T.
Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Skewes-Cox, Thomas
Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.
Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Spear, John Ward

Spencer, Sir E. (W. Bromwich)
Stanley, Hn. Arthur (Ormskirk
Stanley, Edw. Jas. (Somerset)
Stanley, Rt. Hon. Lord (Lancs
Stewart, Sir Mark J. M'Taggart
Stock, James Henry
Stone, Sir Benjamin
Stroyan, John

Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Talbot, Rt. Hn. J.G(Oxf dUniv
Thorburn, Sir Walter
Thornton, Percy M.
Tollemache, Henry James
Tomlinson, Sir Wm. Edw. M. ¿
Tritton, Charles Ernest

Main Question again proposed.
Motion made, and Question, "That
the debate be now adjourned," (Mr.
Herbert Samuel) put, and agreed to.
Debate to be resumed To-morrow.

PUBLIC PETITIONS.

Ordered, That a Select Committee be appointed, to whom shall be referred all Petitions presented to the House, with the exception of such as relate to Private Bills; and that such Committee do classify and prepare abstracts of the same, in such form and manner as shall appear to them best suited to convey to the House all requisite information respecting their contents, and do report the same from time to time to the House; and that the reports of the Committee do set forth the number of signatures to each Petition only in respect to those

Tuff, Charles

Tufnell, Lieut.-Col. Edward
Tuke, Sir John Batty
Valentia, Viscount
Vincent, Col. Sir C.E. H(Sheff'd
Walker, Col. William Hall
Walrond, Rt. Hn. Sir Wm. H.
Wanklyn, James Leslie
Warde, Colonel C. E.
Webb, Colonel William George
Welby, Lt.-Col. A.C.E(Taunton
Welby, Sir Chas. G. E. (Notts.)
Wentworth, Bruce C. Vernon-
Wharton, Rt. Hon. John Lloyd
Whiteley, H(Ashton und. Lyne
Whitmore, Charles Algernon
Williams, Colonel R. (Dorset)
Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Willox, Sir John Archibald
Wilson, A. Stanley (York, E.R.
Wilson, John (Glasgow)
Wilson-Todd, Sir W.H.(Yorks.)
Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E.R.(Bath
Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Wortley, Rt. Hn. C. B. Stuart
Wrightson, Sir Thomas
Wylie, Alexander
Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Wyndham-Quin, Major W. H.

TELLERS FOR THE NOES-Sir
Alexander Acland-Hood and
Mr. Ailwyn Fellowes.

-And that such Committee have power to direct the printing in extenso of such Petitions, or of such parts of Petitions, . as shall appear to require it. And that such Committee have power to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the House.

The Committee was accordingly nominated of Mr. Allsopp, Mr. Edward Barry, Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree, Mr. Brymer, Sir Charles Dalrymple, Colonel Kenyon-Slaney, Mr. Herbert Lewis, Sir Henry Meysey-Thompson, Mr. Charles Morley, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, Mr. Philipps, Mr. Tollemache, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and Mr. Henry Joseph Wilson.

Ordered, That three be the quorum.— (Sir A. Acland-Hood.)

Adjourned at twenty-five minutes

Speech indicates revision by the Member. An Asterisk (*) at the commencement of a

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Tuesday, 16th February, 1904.

PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS.

The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Certificates from the Examiners that the further Standing Orders applicable to the following Bills have been complied with:Barnard Castle Gas [H.L.]; Cardiff Railway [H.L.]

Also the Certificate that the Standing Orders applicable to the following Bill have not been complied with:-Bristol Tramways (Extension).

And also the Certificate that the Standing Orders applicable to the following Bill have been complied with:Govan Burgh (Electricity).

from Northern Nigeria, by Professor W. R. Dunstan, Director of the Imperial Institute.

AFRICA, No. 3 (1904).

Correspondence respecting the introduction of Chinese labour into the Transvaal.

TREATY SERIES, No. 3 (1904). Agreement between the United Kingdom and Italy providing for the settlement by arbitration of certain classes of questions which may arise. between the two Governments; signed at Rome, 1st February, 1904.

to lie on the Table.
Presented (by Command), and ordered

CHELSEA HOSPITAL (ARMY

PRIZE MONEY AND LEGACY FUNDS, 1902 1903.)

Account of the receipts and expenditure of the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital (for services other than those voted by The same were ordered to lie on the March, 1903; together with the report of Parliament), in the year ended 31st the Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon.

Table.

Clyde Valley Electrical Power Bill [H.L.] Presented; read 1a; and referred to the Examiners.

TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANKS.

Twelfth Annual Report of the proceedings of the Inspection Committee of Trustee Savings Banks, for the year ended 20th November, 1903; with appendix.

Laid before the House (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.

Lancashire Electric Power Bill [H.L.]; West Riding Tramways Bill [H.L.]; Cambrian Railways Bill [H.L.]; Tyne mouth Gas Bill [H.L.]; Neath, Pontardawe, and Brynaman Railway Bill [H.L.]; Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Bill [H.L.]; Barry Railway (Steam Vessels) Bill [H.L.]; Harlow and Sawbridgeworth Gas Bill [H.L.]; Barry Railway (Extension of Time, &c.) Bill [H.L.]. Read 2a. Dumbarton Tramways Order Confirmation Bill. Brought from the Commons; read 1a; to be printed, and (pursuant to the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899) deemed to have been read 2 [The Lord Kintore (E. Kintore)], and reported from the Com-AGRICULTURE (The Earl of ONSLOW): mittee. (No. 12.)

RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC.

COLONIES (MISCELLANEOUS).
No. 26. Northern Nigeria. Report on a
series of mineral and vegetable products
VOL. CXXIX. [FOURTH SERIES.]

SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM. Statement of the funds, 5th January, 1904. Delivered (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.

SEA FISHERIES BILL [H.L.].

[SECOND READING.]

*THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF

My Lords, undersized flat fish have not been fortunate at the hands of Parliament. Many Bills have been brought in to endeavour to preserve them, but none of them have succeeded in commanding the support of both Houses of Parliament. As long ago as 1888 this question was brought before Parliament by a conference of those interested in the trawling 3 F

industry. Some of them waited upon me | ask you to send it to a Select Committee as a deputation a short time ago, and one of this House, before whom I believe I or two of those gentlemen pathetically shall be able to lay an amount of evidence observed that most of those who had which was not before the Committee of originally taken part in urging this 1900, and which, if it had been before question had now joined the great that Committee, would, I think, very majority. A Bill was brought in by Mr. materially have influenced their decision. Bryce, then President of the Board of This question is not one which is being Trade, in 1895. Another Bill was brought brought forward by the Board of Agriculin by the present Lord-Lieutenant of ture and Fisheries on its own mere notion. Ireland (the Earl of Dudley), then repre- It has been pressed upon it on all sides senting the Board of Trade in this House, by those who are interested in the fishing both in 1896 and 1897. In 1898 my industry. It has been pressed upon it by noble friend Lord Heneage brought in a the owners of those large fleets that to go Bill, and in 1899 a measure was introduced the North Sea to pursue their business, by Lord Camperdown, and the last Bill and it has been pressed equally by the on the subject was one brought in by Mr. various fisheries committees throughout Ritchie when he was President of the the Kingdom. A very large sum of Board of Trade in 1900. That Bill was public money is being expended in inreferred to a Commitee, which considered vestigation and research. This country it very carefully. The Committee re- joined an International Conference which ported that in their opinion it had been was to inquire, among other things, into established that there were certain well- the reason why the supply of flat fish in known areas in the North Sea where the North Sea was being gradually small and young fish congregate, and that depleted. A sum of £42,000 has been if we could prevent fishing in such areas voted to be expended in three years. it would obviously be of great value. The investigations are to last for a longer They further reported that the proposal period than that, but for at least three in the Bill to prevent the sale of under- years this country is committed to an sized flat fish would introduce certain expenditure of £42,000 in the aggregate harassing conditions upon those who for the purpose of those investigations. carried on their business along the shore After that it will be necessary to reconand in the smaller trawling vessels, and sider our position. When that £42,000 in those circumstances the Committee was authorised there was no Department thought it would not be expedient for the specially concerned with the administraBill to pass without further investigation; tion of the fisheries. Certain statutory but they added that they were confident duties concerning the interests of the that the question of the diminution of fishing population of England and Wales he fish supply was a very pressing one were entrusted to the Board of Trade. and that the situation was going from It was therefore thought advisable bad to worse. No effort, they thought, to hand this sum of money over to two ought to be spared to provide especially existing bodies, to the Scottish Fisheries for the regulation of the Nort Sea area Board and to the Marine Biological Asand for the adequate equipment of the sociation. The latter is a scientific inGovernment Department which had con- stitution, whose headquarters are at trol of the subject. Since then the catch Plymouth, which is primarily, in fact I of fish has, it is true, not materially fallen think I may say entirely, a biological off, but the area to which the vessels go-association managed and administered from Iceland in the North to Portugal in by biologists; they have directed the South-has increased enormously, as the investigations under their control also has the number of vessels engaged in the trade. Therefore I do not think that the former statistics are at all comparable with the statistics obtainable to-day.

If your Lordships are pleased to give this Bill a Second Reading I propose to

more particularly to the direction and the temperature of the currents in the North Sea plankton, and also to that curious floating organism which is the fish food found in all parts of the ocean; but they have not directed their attention, at any rate to any great extent, in the direction of ascertaining what are the