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shore of a bay may be criminal on tlie south shore. 

 This inequality of regulation gives rise to numerous 

 complaints, and I cannot say that the majority of these 

 complaints are not well founded. The commission at 

 the last session of the Legislature attempted to secure 

 the passage of a uniform law concerning tide water; 

 our wardens had ascertained the desires of the people 

 living along the sea coast, and it was presumed that 

 the proposed measure would meet with little opposition. 

 We felt confident that the vast majority of those 

 directly interested approved of the law as suggesed by 

 the commission, but it was this large majority that 

 remained at home, confident that their interests would 

 be taken care of; on the other hand, each individual 

 who wanted some privilege not enjoyed by his neigh- 

 bors, under the old laws, and each man who thought 

 he knew all about salt water fish and their habits, 

 because, perhaps, he might have smoked herring or 

 made fish barrels for a year or two, hurried to Trenton, 

 and altogether there was such a din of opposition that 

 the legislators buried the measure in committee. The 

 result is that particular localities and certain indi- 

 viduals enjoy privileges not common to all, and the 

 impression continues that our fish and game laws are 

 not made for the benefit of everybod}', but that they 

 confer special rights on a favored few. Our laws per- 

 taining to shad prohibit the taking of this fish on 

 Sundays, and the law is a very wholesome one, as it 

 permits the shad to ascend to their spawning ground 

 unmolested for one day in the week. This law is 

 objected to by some, because Delaware, our neighboring 

 state, has no such restrictive legislation. Jerseymen 

 complain that they are not accorded the rights enjoyed 

 by their competitors in Delaware. They seem 

 unmindful of the fact that the circumstances in New 

 Jersey are wholly different from those in Delaware, 

 that the shad water over which the latter has control 



