( 45 ) 



states that a decrease in the tank-produced fish is believed 

 to have occurred since the district has formed a portion of 

 the British territory : previously the people were prohibited 

 from killing fish in tanks unless they paid some fees or share 

 of fish to the local talukdar. If n a lias are completely 

 swept of fish, it is certain that the amount in the rivers will 

 likewise fall off. The Tehsildar of Nursingpur (para. 264) 

 remarks, — " it is to this wholesale destruction of small fish 

 that the fish have decreased." In Madras, the Tehsildar of 

 Bhimavaram (para. 173) observes, that it cannot be ascer- 

 tained if the fish have increased or decreased, " as every one 

 is allowed to fish as he likes since the abolition of the renting 

 system." In the North- Western Provinces, three tehsildars 

 in the Benares Division (p. clxxvii) consider that fish have 

 decreased, "owing to the indiscriminate destruction of the 

 young." 



LX. How were fisheries worked under native rule ? — 



Fisheries, how worked under is a question that but few have 

 native rule. thrown any light upon ; but still it 



appears that it is possible to ascertain this,* and that fisheries 

 formed royalties, mostly let out to contractors, who alone in 

 the districts possessed the right to sell fish, and that they 

 permitted the people on payment (para. 7) to capture fish 

 for their own consumption. In fact, it was a license on pay- 

 ment resumable at will, as in the British law (see para. 88). 

 Remains of this custom still exist at Lahore (para. 27), and 

 the leasing of fisheries is even now pursued in many portions 

 of the Indian Empire. Thus, if the following reports are 

 looked through, it will be seen that the Deputy Commis- 

 sioner of Kangra (para. 30), in suggesting what steps are 

 advisable in future with reference to the fisheries in his 

 district, observes, these measures must be practically a system 

 of Government preserves, such as was always in force in the 

 time of the Bajahs, partly by giving licenses to monopolists 

 to supply the market, and partly by licenses for fishing with 

 small nets for home consumption and not for sale. At 

 Lahore, as already remarked, the system still exists, and none 

 but the contractor may obtain fish for sale, and no one is 

 permitted to sell this article unless it goes through his hands. 

 Also Burma, where it appears pretty clear (p. cxciii) that in 



the time of native rule, this identical plan was carried on, there 



* A most useful enquiry would be — how were fisheries under native rule worked in your 

 district ? But the investigation would be troublesome, and probably trustworthy answers 

 could not be obtained. 



