REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [372] 



ing sums : The owner, exporter, or shipper, shall forfeit six dollars for 

 every cask containing fish ; and every master of a vessel shall forfeit 

 for every such cask on board, three dollars ; but fish brought from an- 

 other State, and inspected and branded in the State in which they were 

 put up for market, conformably to its laws, and accompanied with such 

 evidence thereof as such laws require, may be exported from this State 

 without any reinspection. 



53. EEPEALED LAWS. 



MAINE. 



Until the year 1820, Maine was a province of Massachusetts and sub- 

 ject to the same laws, but in that year the province became a separate 

 State and made its own laws. The fish inspection laws enacted by the 

 State of Maine were very similar to those of the mother State. The 

 first law was approved March 22, 1821, and is entitled "An act to pro- 

 vide for the packiug of pickled and smoked fish." It reads as follows : 



Appointment and qualification of inspectors. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature 

 assembled. That the governor, with the advice of council, is hereby 

 authorized and directed to appoint and commission, during his pleasure, 

 in each town and plantation in this State where pickled fish or smoked 

 alewives and herriugs are cured or packed for the purpose of exporta- 

 tion, one or more suitable person or persons inspector or inspectors of 

 pickled fish and smoked alewives and herrings, who shall be well skilled 

 in the quality of the same, and who, before he enters on the duties of 

 his office, shall be sworn to the faithful discharge thereof, and shall 

 give bond with sufficient sureties to the treasurer of the town or plan- 

 tation in which he is appointed, in the penal sum of not less than five 

 hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, for the faithful perform- 

 ance of the duties of his office. And the selectmen of towns and 

 assessors of plantations, in which such inspectors shall be appointed, 

 shall annually examine the bonds given as aforesaid, and if the bond of 

 any such inspector shall by them be considered insufficient, they shall 

 forthwith notify such inspector of the same, and if any inspector shall 

 for thirty days after such notice neglect to give bond as aforesaid to 

 the satisfaction of such selectmen or assessors, it shall be their duty to 

 give information thereof to the governor, who shall remove such inspec- 

 tor and appoint some other person to such office. And any person 

 injured by the neglect or misdoings of any such inspector shall be en- 

 titled to a copy of such bond, and shall have a light to bring an action 

 thereon in the name of such treasurer for his own use and benefit ; and 

 on producing the original in court and obtaining judgment thereon, 

 execution shall issue for such sum ouly as shall be found due in dam- 

 ages to the person for whose use any such action shall be brought ; and 



