§ MR. ESSLEMONT (Aberdeen, E.)asked the Lord Advocate, Whether he is prepared to lay upon the Table of the House a copy of the Report of the Scotch Fishery Board, with details as to the nature and extent of experiments said to have been made by that Board, and which has led the Scotch Secretary to revoke the bye-law prohibiting beam-trawling in the Aberdeen Bay; and, whether he is aware that line fishermen are universally of opinion that great good resulted from the period of prohibition now revoked?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. H. A. MACDONALD) (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities)The Annual Report of the Board, which will be presented immediately, will give information and statistics connected with the trawling experiments, including those in Aberdeen Bay. I must remind the hon. Member that the bye-law in question was passed solely for purposes of experiment; and that it is matter for after consideration what shall be done as the result of the information derived from this experiment. And, of course, the views of practical fishermen as to the effect of the experiments will have weight in the question what permanent bye-laws are to be issued.