SEA FISHERIES REGULATION (SCOT LAND) BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 5 July 1895)

LORD BALFOUR

said, that as this was a Bill which had attracted a certain amount of attention, the House would desire that he should state what Amendments had been made by the other House. The first were those which were privileged Amendments; there having been a clause in this Bill placing a burden on public funds, certain words were struck out by the House, and these words had now been re-inserted by the other House in exactly the same form. The other two Amendments which had been made were upon Clause 10, which was that clause giving power to the Secretary for Scotland to frame bylaws for enclosing certain parts of the sea adjacent to the coast of Scotland against trawling. The wording of the clause was now negative instead of positive, as it was thought in the other House that the drafting of the proviso was open to objection. There was no change made in the sense or effect of the clause, but he thought the Amendment did make it more certain that the Secretary for Scotland should not close the sea trawling unless other nations had accepted the same limitation in regard to their own ships. There was only one other Amendment, which provided that the bylaw could not be confirmed till the Secretary for Scotland should have directed a local inquiry at which all persons interested might be heard. In addition to this, it was specially enacted that notice should be sent to all sea fisheries in England. This was a reasonable provision, and added to the protection already afforded by the clause that no injustice should be done to material interests. He hoped that the Amendments, being so slight in their nature, but still adding to the protection already afforded by the Bill, would be accepted by their Lordships without difficulty.