bo 



localities where they are Hberated on the tugs of the 

 fishermen, who reap the first and greatest pecuniary 

 benefit for their capture. Will he do this share of 

 the work without compensation ? No, he charges his 

 price even for the planting ; Shylock takes his pound 

 of flesh even though it is from the heart. 



When legislation is proposed for the protection of 

 the fisheries, the fisherman is found arrayed against it, 

 and his main argument is that it is an interference zvith 

 Ins business / Is it ? What is his business ? To whom 

 do the fisheries belong ? Who has been striving for 

 years to bring back the fisheries to something like 

 their original fruitful condition by the liberal expendi- 

 ture of money? It is the State in the interest of its 

 people. The waters belong to the public, and their 

 rights in the fisheries are paramount to that of the in- 

 dividual fisherman. The fisheries are theirs and who- 

 ever exercises the privilege of fishing therein does so 

 by the sufferance of the public, and under implied un- 

 derstanding that he shall not prejudice the public rights 

 therein. The fisherman in the prosecution of his busi- 

 ness is enjoying 2i privilege and not a right, and he is 

 entitled to enjoy that privilege so long as he exercises 

 it with a due regard to the paramount right of the 

 public to have them preserved for the future, and no 

 longer. When he goes beyond this and threatens the 

 very existence of the fisheries by his acts he should be 

 called to a halt by proper laws, the same as any other 

 transgressor against public rights. 



The statistics of the commercial fisheries of Michi- 

 gan reflects the condition to which the fisheries have 

 fallen all over the great Lake system, and it may be 

 worth while in considering this matter to briefly refer to 

 them. The number of nets fished in 1885 was 25,893, 

 in 1891, 36.514, in 1S92, 38,283 and in 1893, 42,073. 



