656 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Dot infrequently leased in smaller subdivisions, and are thoroughly 

 exhausted by the lessees. 



Owners of land even now consider themselves in most places as priv- 

 ileged to fish, and do not allow any fisherman or lessee to come on their 

 property, even if no damage is done, threatening them and driving them 

 away. Everybody fishes, and there is no supervision attempted, as it 

 could scarcely be carried through. No more complaints are therefore 

 made as to unlawful fishing ; many of the privilege-holders consider 

 their rights as almost lost, and wish to sell them out. 



This, of course, strengthens the erroneous views which the larger por- 

 tion of the population entertain. 



Even in those parts where fishing-privileges are still somewhat re- 

 spected, the organization of the industry is not much better. The privi- 

 lege-holders rent their grounds in small portions and on short time, 

 and the lessees catch everything that swims in the water. 



Here and there we find fishing-privileges belonging to a number of 

 persons in common ; also so-called alternate fishing-privileges, (see 

 above.) A reporter calls all these, " privileges for plundering and de- 

 stroying." 



In CarintMaj provisions are made for the fisheries in the law made by 

 Charles VI, 1577, § 29, and also by a special resolution of the Carin- 

 thiau assembly, passed June 17, 1715, and the privileges of lords and 

 landed proprietors have been protected. Towns and market-places 

 which have their own independent law-courts likewise possess the 

 fishing-privilege. 



The last reports complain very much of the senseless system of plun- 

 dering, thieving, insufficient protection, and of the antiquated forms 

 which are in the way of a healthy development of the fisheries. By 

 these evils, it is said, the finest fish-waters are depopulated, and this, as 

 well as the low price paid for the products, sufficiently explains the 

 decline of the Carinthian fisheries. 



At the general meeting of the Carinthian Agricultural Society, held 

 January 25, 1872, a strong and almost universal desire was expressed to 

 have the fishing-privileges bought off. Although the necessity for such 

 a measure was fully recognized, no resolution was passed. 



In Carniola, the state of affairs is very similar. Here also there are 

 in some parts of the country alternate fishing-privileges, the fisheries 

 changing owners every year or at longer intervals. No one doubts that 

 such privileges are injurious to the fisheries, and both the Carniola as- 

 sembly and the agricultural society have strongly urged their abolition. 



By government ordinances of June 27, 1S52, Z. 4881, (Landesgcsetz- 

 blatt, XXV, p. 510,) and of September 18, 1852, Z. 8045, fishing-permits 

 have been introduced in Carniola. 



Istria does not possess any fresh- water fisheries of importance. The 

 forest-streams mostly dry up during the summer; the Arsa Canal, 



