22 UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES OF MARINE FISHERIES. 
THE FISHERMEN’S CASE. 
The fishermen on the coast are well aware of what goes on 
up the rivers. They know what the proprietors think of them, 
and they know what they think of each other. They are men 
who have to earn money for a living, and they have wives and 
families to maintain. They fish in the sea, which is free to all, 
and they find salmon there. Salmon are of considerable value, 
consequently the fishermen lay out what money they can afford 
in boats and nets, and, having sunk their capital, they must make 
it as productive as possible. The law, from their point of view, 
harasses them considerably, but in the main they abide by it, 
and, if they were the only people taking toll of the salmon, the 
crop in the rivers would be in a very different state from what it 
is at present. As has been pointed out, they do not take only 
the cream of the breeding fish, but they catch their fair per- 
centage of fish which are no longer of any use to the river owing 
to their age. Where I find fault with them chiefly is their 
conniving at legal practices. The majority of the fishermen are 
law-abiding, but they will not interfere with the minority who 
break the law. In this they make a great mistake, for they allow 
their trade to become a byeword for poaching, and as a class 
they are distrusted. This prejudice against their integrity will 
take a long time to overcome, and it is a pity that a number of 
worthy men should be dubbed rascals for the sake of the few who 
really are so. Again, they have an idea (for which, it must be 
confessed, there is some ground) that the river proprietors would 
like to do away with all salmon netting, consequently they do 
not trust strangers with information, and it is very difficult even 
for their friends to get at the truth. Their grievances are many, 
because they are misunderstood, but no one with a knowledge of 
what goes on up the rivers can justly accuse the fishermen of 
being the cause of the present scarcity of salmon. The case for 
both parties at present stands thus—conflicting interests, 
jealousy, distrust, and ignorance as to cause and effect. To 
suggest a remedy may seem a bold thing, but there is a way out 
of the difficulty, and I am inclined to think it is the only one. 
Mutual interest or co-operation would place things on a very 
different footing, and the result would ‘not be a thing of the 
distant future, but each year would show a steady advance till a 
very great improvement would be arrived at. 
