HL Deb 28 May 1875 vol 224 cc1002-4

Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee, read.

THE EARL OF DUNMOER

said, that, owing to the lateness of the hour when the Bill came on for a second reading, he had postponed the few remarks he proposed to make until to-day. The object of the Bill was to establish a close time in the seal fishery in the seas adjacent to the Eastern Coast of Greenland, without which it was the general opinion that those animals would altogether cease to exist. The origin of the Bill, which had come up from the House of Commons, was this—The attention of the Board of Trade had been repeatedly called to the murderous manner in which the seal fishing was conducted in Greenland and the adjacent seas. From the accounts given in the public journals, and from reliable evidence which had been taken on the subject from ship-owners and captains of vessels employed in the trade, it appeared that there were about 60 ships engaged in the fishery, hailing from England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Holland. The practice had been to commence fishing about the month of March, when the breeding seals were killed in great numbers. The newly-born seals were then left motherless, and consequently died of starvation, and unless some steps like those proposed in the Bill were taken in the matter to obtain a close time for seals, there was every reason to anticipate an ultimate extinction of the species and the consequent annihilation of a most profitable branch of industry. The matter had been brought before Her Majesty's Government by the Swedish Government, and the accounts which had appeared in this country were fully corroborated by a despatch from Her Majesty's Minister at Stockholm, and also by the almost unanimous opinions of persons engaged in the trade. He would read a short extract, dated Christiania, August 19, 1874, enclosed by Her Majesty's Minister at Stockholm, in his despatch. He said— Ever since the month of May, when our seal fishers began to return, negotiations have been going on, though hitherto without result, between our different shipowners, with a view to some understanding being come to as to postponing the opening of the seal fishery for one month later than is now the practice. The captains give heartrending descriptions of the manner in which the fishing was conducted this year, owing to its having commenced too soon—namely, at the close of March. There was this year a good prospect of all the vessels being able to return full. Thousands of pregnant female seals were to he seen swimming about preparatory to giving birth to their young on the ice over the shoals frequented by the shrimps, on which the seals principally subsist. But the vessels were lying in wait, and such a destruction commenced that after the lapse of three days the fishing was utterly destroyed, and thousands of young seals were heard crying piteously after their slaughtered mothers. The young seal is worthless until it is three or four weeks old. If the fishing is conducted in this manner for a very few years more the seals will be utterly exterminated. The steps which the Board of Trade had taken in the matter were described, and the Correspondence which had passed was given in a Parliamentary Paper in the hands of their Lordships. The Board had expressed their opinion that the best recommendation they could give was that the object in view—namely, the protection of the seal fishery—might be obtained by the introduction of a Bill framed on the principle of several recent Acts, giving Her Majesty power by an Order in Council to prohibit the killing of seals within certain geographical limits before a certain date in each year; such powers to be only exercised if Her Majesty was satisfied that other nations fishing in the same waters had made, and would enforce, similar arrangements with respect to their own fishermen. The Bill in its present shape had been approved by the Foreign Office, and had passed through the other House of Parliament without Amendments. He therefore hoped their Lordships would see fit to give it an equally free passage through that House.

House in Committee accordingly; Bill reported without Amendment; and to be read 3a on Monday next.