THE FISHERY INTERESTS OP AUSTRIA. 623 



catcli fish or crawfish by torch-light, or, in fishing, use injurious or ex- 

 plosive matter, are to be punished with a fine not to exceed the sum of 

 8150, or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed six months. 



In both cases of violation of the law, persons are prosecuted only if 

 proper information has been given to the authorities. 



Great as had been the care which the Prussian government had de- 

 voted to the. framing of the several fishing-laws, many provisions had 

 to be changed after a few years, showing how difficult it is to hit the 

 right path at once in framing such a code. The published reasons for 

 passing the law of April 22, 1869, changing the fishing-regulations of the 

 law of August 30, 1S65, in the district or Stralsund, contain the following: 



" The law of August 30, 1805, is the result of thorough discussion^ 

 during many years. The provincial authorities have gathered a vast 

 mass of material for this purpose, which has been sifted and arranged 

 by the ministry ; and the provincial assemblies, as well as the Prussian 

 parliament, have carefully considered all the propositions. If this law, 

 nevertheless, after having been in force scarcely two years, is found to 

 require a change, the cause of this is not a want of preliminary consid- 

 eration, but the impossibility of making such consideration entirely 

 exhaustive." 



The published reasons for passing the law point out the fact that the 

 criticising of the many views of private individuals and fishermen, often 

 differing in the m.ost essential points, requires a fund of general, local, 

 and technical knowledge not often found in one man, so that the defects 

 of the first law can be remedied only by experience. 



It is a peculiar phenomenon that in the Ehine province, the fisheries 

 have been regulated by an order of Minister Stein, of August 18, 1814 — 

 to whom Prussia owes her best agrarian laws — on those principles which 

 are even now recognized there, viz, the formation of fishing-associations 

 by government order, in all cases where the persons holding fishing- 

 privileges cannot agree. This very excellent order was rescinded by the 

 law of July 23, 1833, and when, in consequence of this, the rentiug-out 

 of the fisheries in private waters was entirely stopped, the fisheries were 

 completely ruined. During the last thirty years, fisbing in private 

 streams in the Ehine province has decreased very much, because they 

 were almost depopulatedby the reckless conduct of privileged and non- 

 privileged persons. As nothing was done either to protect the propaga- 

 tion of fish, or to prevent abuses, the business has become almost the 

 exclusive property of fish-thieves. 



From these and similar reasons, several agricultural societies, and 

 especially the Deutsche Fiselierei- Verein, have recently pointed out the 

 necessity of regulating the fisheries in the larger waters by the formation 

 of protective societies. 



In the Ehine province, these protective associations begin to find favor, 

 although they have no legal basis, as is shown by those at Polch and on 

 the IsTiins, in the Bitburg district. The mayors, who usually start theso 



