366 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
not be exacted of the konohiki; and in all cases where the konohiki shall set apart 
one kind of fish only, as per section 4 of said law, such fish shall belong to the kono- 
hiki exclusively and without deviation or molestation. 
Src. 2. All fishing grounds pertaining to any government land, or otherwise 
belonging to the government, excepting only ponds, shall be, and are hereby, forever 
granted to the people for the free and equal use of all persons: Provided, however, 
That for the protection of such fishing grounds the minister of the interior may taboo 
the taking of fish thereon at certain seasons of the year. 
Src. 3. The minister of the interior shall give public notice in the Elele and Poly- 
nesian newspapers of any such taboo imposed by him, together with the name of 
such fish, and no such taboo shall be in force until due notice has been given. Any 
person who shall be found guilty of violating such taboo, upon complaint before any 
district justice, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifteen dollars in the discre- 
tion of the court, and restore all fishes taken, or the value thereof. 
Src. 4. No person living without the Kingdom shall take any fish within the har- 
bors, streams, reefs, or other waters of the same for the purpose of carrying them for 
sale or otherwise to any place without the Kingdom. 
Src. 5. Every person violating the provisions of the preceding section may be pun- 
ished, upon complaint made to any district justice, by a fine not exceeding two 
hundred dollars in the discretion of the court. 
Sec. 6. All acts or parts of acts, resolves or parts of resolves, contrary to the pro- 
visions of this act shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 
Src. 7. The minister of the interior is hereby charged with the execution of this 
act. 
Approved by the King July 11, 1851. 
Although the government had given the people free access to the 
fisheries attached to its lands, many persons who had purchased or 
leased land from the government after this had been done attempted 
to assert exclusive rights to the fisheries adjacent to the lands, and 
refused the fishermen the rights they had previously enjoyed. In 
order to redress this grievance the following law was enacted in 1851: 
AN ACT to protect the people in certain fishing grounds. 
Whereas certain persons to whom government lands have been sold have assumed 
exclusive rights of fishing in the sea adjacent to said land, without the justi- 
fication of law; and whereas the people in numerous instances have been unjustly 
deprived of their rights to the fish on the grounds long since made free to them by 
law, namely, on the fishing grounds commonly known as the Kilohee grounds, the 
Luhee grounds, the Malolo grounds, and the fishing of the ocean from the reefs 
seaward; and whereas the present law affords no sufficient protection to the people 
in those rights: Therefore, 
Be it enacted by the nobles and representatives of the Hawaiian Islands in Legislative 
Council assembled : 
Section 1. That no person who has bought or who may hereafter buy any govern- 
ment land, or obtain land by lease or other title from any party, has or shall have 
any greater right than any other person resident in this Kingdom over any fishing 
ground not included in his title, although adjacent to said land. The fish in said 
fishing ground shall belong to all persons alike, and may be taken at any time, subject 
only to the taboos of the minister of the interior. 
Sec. 2. If that species of fish which has been tabooed by any-konohiki shall go 
onto the grounds which have been or may be given to the people, such fish shall not 
be tabooed them. It shall only be tabooed when caught within the bounds of the 
