§ Mr. COCHRANE (Ayrshire, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland in regard to the revocation of By-law No. 16, passed by the Fishery Board for Scotland on 22nd July, 1898, which permitted beam-trawling in the Clyde, whether he proposes to give any compensation to those beam-trawlers who have thereby been deprived of their living, several of whom are elderly men who have pursued this calling for many years.
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. SINCLAIR,) ForfarshireThere is no fund from which compensation can be provided. Petitions were received from Greenock and Saltcoats against the repeal of the by-law. For these reasons careful preliminary inquiries were made into the circumstances. It is not the case that the repeal will deprive the petitioners, or indeed any of those whom the by-law was intended to protect, of their living. The by-law exceptionally permitting trawling in these waters was designed only to mitigate hardship to individuals and not as a permanent measure. It has been in operation for eighteen years, and has extended to these beam-trawling fishermen during the whole of that period special privileges; and it has been deemed necessary that the exemption should now cease to exist in the general interests of the fisheries in the Clyde district.