FISH AND FISHERIES. 161 



do so when tliey can.* The bays and creeks of every harbour and the 

 still waters of every lake and river swarm, under natur-al conditions, 

 with the young of these fish in all stages of development. The fishing- 

 net in use among our fishermen — a seine of almost unlimited length, 

 and having in the centre a mesh almost small enough to catch shrimps — • 

 has long been a most destructive implement to these young fish ; and 

 the constant harassing of the flats and beaches by " stalling" and the 

 ordinary hauling net, has resulted not only in driving away the f ull-roed 

 fish from their favourite haunts on the shallows into deep water, where 

 the spawn is often shed under comjiulsion, and of course is rarely 

 hatched, but also in something like extermination of the young of all the 

 best kinds of our net-fish. 



Our largest supplies of fish come from inlets, and not from open sea 

 fishing as in Europe and America. In these truly antipodean divergen- 

 cies from the conditions obtaining in other couneries lies the justification 

 of our recent legislation. We must protect the spawning fish and their 

 young fry in the inlets, if we desii-e to prevent the absolute extinction 

 of the best of our food fishes. 



The Fisheries Act, 1881, is, without doubt, the first formal attempt at 

 comprehensive legislation based on the principle of protecting the natural 

 supplies of fish (including oysters, lobsters, and prawns under that term), 

 and of regulating and controlling their capture. The administrative 

 authority, subject to the customary executive control, under which the 

 new system is to be worked, is a body of five Commissioners appointed 

 by the Governor in Council, whose term of ofl3.ce is five years, and whose 

 jurisdiction extends over the entire territory. The fisheries on the sea- 

 board are distributed into three divisions — the Home, the Northern, and 

 the Southern fisheries ; in one or other of which divisions every marine 

 fishery, whether for fish, oysters, lobsters, or prawns, will be con- 

 tained. The regular supervision of these fisheries will be the duty of 

 inspectors and assistant inspectors ; and, in addition to the regular 

 staff, certain Government officials are, by the Act, created inspectors 

 ex officio. The inspectors and assistant inspectors are required to report 

 to the Commissioners, in detail, at least once in every month, or oftener 

 if directed, as to the state of the fisheries included within their respec- 

 tive divisions. The most extensive powers of framing regulations on all 

 matters of detail are vested in the Governor in Council. The character 

 and importance of this feature in the new system have already been 

 adverted to. 



* It is not perhaps correct to say that the sehnapper spawns in inlets as a rule, 

 for there is evidence of the spawn of this fish having been found on the school 

 grounds at sea. It is, however, certain that the young fry of the sehnapper resort 

 to the inlets at a very early stage of development ; indeed, every inlet on our 

 coast seems to be the natural asylum of the young of all our best food fishes. 



