( 108 ) 



statute is to prevent owners of fisheries from doing what 

 they like with their own, that is, it prevents them from kill- 

 ing salmon at certain times and by certain kinds of means, in 

 order to secure fair play to the fish and to the adjoining own- 

 ers, and with a view to the public interest. It may be safely 

 assumed that the law, as previously stated, applies equally 

 to salmon as to other fish, except so far as varied by what 

 follows in this statute" (p. 136). 



CXVIII. " For the better protection of the proprietors 

 _, . „ _ of salmon fisheries, it is provided that 



Uoards 01 Conservators. . , T . . . f _ 



the Justices in general or Quarter 

 Sessions, may appoint conservators or overseers for the pre- 

 servation of salmon and enforcing the provisions of the law 

 within the jurisdiction of such Justices — 24 & 25 Vic, c. 109, 

 s. 33. They may apply to the Home Secretary and have 

 a fishery district formed, and the committee is to elect the 

 chairman and they appoint a Board of Conservators." Con- 

 servators, appointed under " The Salmon Fishery Act, 1865," 

 have power within their district to appoint a sufficient 

 number of water bailiffs ; * * to issue licenses for fishing 

 as provided in the schedule ; * * for removing such weirs 

 or other fixed engines as are illegal ; and generally to do 

 such acts as they may deem expedient for the improve- 

 ment of the salmon fisheries (" Baker, p. 44s.") In any 

 fishery district, subject to the control of conservators, licen- 

 ses are to be granted at fixed prices to all persons using rod 

 and line for fishing for salmon, and in respect of all fishing 

 weirs, fishing mill dams, putts, putchers, nets or other in- 

 struments or devices, except rods and lines, whereby salmon 

 are caught : and the produce of such licenses is to be applied 

 in defraying the expenses of carrying into effect in such 

 districts " The Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 and 1865" (28 & 

 29 Vic, c 121, s. 33). 



CXIX. From the foregoing it will be seen that in Eng- 

 land fishing weirs are considered a 



Weirs and fish -passes. . ° -, •o^^ 1 



nuisance, and, even if legal, must 

 have a fish-pass in them or free gap : that other fixed engines 

 are illegal : that the size of the mesh of nets and interstices 

 between substances forming weirs is laid down : fry are 

 protected, the very possession of them being a punishable 

 offence : unfair modes of fishing are prohibited as well as 

 poisoning of waters : a weekly close time is insisted upon to 

 allow a free passage for the fish, whilst, during certain months 

 of the year, all fishing with nets or at weirs is illegal, and 



