664:. REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The other commissions for buying off privileges, and the assemblies, 

 ■were at the same time informed by the ordinance of January 31, 1852, 

 Z. 460, that by the laws regarding the purchasing of these rights, the 

 fishing-privileges had not been abolished, and should therefore remain 

 as they were in 1847, and that no buyiug-off should be allowed. 



These ordinances have also been published in the official journals of 

 several provinces. 



The government of Silesia has at its request been informed by an 

 ordinance of the ministry of the interior, of April 9, 1852, Z. 7997, that 

 protection was not to be afforded to the arbitrary practices introduced 

 in 1848, but to the laws as existing in 1847. 



The ministry of justice, in its note of December 30, 1851, Z. 13740, 

 declared that it did not consider it proper to construe the regulations 

 for buying off privileges in such a manner as to make the proof of own- 

 ership of ground bordering on the water sufficient evidence as to the 

 ownership of the water, because such an explanation would exceed the 

 legally prescribed functions of the ministry, and would scarcely be no- 

 ticed by the civil courts. It would then also be necessary, if any one, 

 in accordance with § 4, had put himself in possession of some fishing- 

 privilege, and a dispute should arise on this point with the former'holder, 

 that the decision, and therefore also the explanation of the law, should 

 belong to the judge, inasmuch as the commissions themselves are not 

 competent judges in disputes relating to titles of possession. 



In reviewing the different notes and proclamations of the ministries in 

 their connection, we are assured, beyond a doubt, that, in 1851 and 1852, 

 they did not consider themselves justified in annulling, by a ministerial 

 ordinance, the Bohemian and Moravian statutes of June 27, 1849, and 

 the Silesian statute of July 11, 1849 ; and that such action was by no 

 means intended by the ministerial ordinance of January 31, 1852, Z. 4G0, 

 even if a faulty practice occasionally led to such erroneous views. 



That the practice was not the same everywhere is stated expressly in 

 a report on fishing-privileges of the Silesian assembly, {StenograpMsclw 

 Sitzungsberichte, 1869, p. 310,) in which it is said that in that province 

 the landed proprietors did not always succeed, and that in fact they 

 made no great exertions to restore the state of affairs that had existed 

 before 1848. 



In Bohemia and Moravia, fishing is likewise carried on in some waters 

 by communities, or owners of the shore, without any dispute arising 

 from this. It is an undoubted fact that the fisheries in these provinces 

 have been declining rapidly since the year 1849, since the innumerable 

 small subdivisions of the fishing- waters, where frequently the left bank 

 of a stream has another owner than the right, do not admit of a rational 

 and profitable culture, and since, so far, all attempts at reform have 

 proved failures. 



