326 



and the same thing holds good for such places as the estuary 

 of the Onkaparinga, Port Wakefield, Port Pirie, &c., &c. 



Whether the mischief to which I have referred is going on 

 in defiance of the lawi or v/hether the law as it stands is in- 

 sufficient to deal with it, I am unable to say, but in any case 

 it is sincerely to be hoped that the new Bill will give ample 

 power to check such outrages. Unless the Bill is carefully 

 drawn and stringently enforced it will be of little use, and 

 the depletion of the fish supply will inevitably go on. That 

 the existing law is not enforced in some directions is apparent 

 from the fact that in our public streets crayfish below the 

 minimum legal size are sometimes exposed for sale, and that, 

 too, in not inconsiderable numbers. 



One other preventive measure calls for special mention, 

 namely, the destruction of fish-eating birds. The efforts of 

 the Bird Protection Society have, I am sure, the fullest 

 sympathy of all right-thinking people, ini so far as they are 

 directed against the wanton destruction of beautiful and use- 

 ful birds; but the fact cannot be overlooked that the advent 

 of man has greatly disturbed the balance of nature and 

 rendered necessary measures which seem at first sight highly 

 undesirable. The fisherman has been added to the enemies 

 of the fish, and, especially where his operations are ruthlessly 

 destructive, his influence, added to that of the birds, has alto^ 

 gether disturbed natural conditions and proved too much for 

 the survival of the finny tribes. It would seem to have be- 

 come necessary, therefore, to take means for the destruction 

 of sruch birds as shags and pelicans, which are known to 

 devour enormous quantities of fish. It may be, judging from 

 experience gained on British coasts, that even gulls may have 

 to come under some measure of condemnation. 



But matters have been allowed to go so far that preventive 

 measures alone will prove inadequate to cop© with the increas- 

 ing depletion of the fish supply. It will be necessary, in 

 addition, to provide for the replenishment of the supply by 

 establishing fish hatcheries, which will not only hatch out 

 young fish, but preserve them in the earlier stages of their 

 life from their numerous enemies. Then when they have 

 reached a certain stage they can be distributed in the open 

 sea and safely left to their own devices. The Bill now before 

 Parliament proposes to do something in this direction, but I 

 doiibt whether it proposes to do enough. The N.S.W. Go- 

 vernment has made some attempt to establish hatcheries for 

 sea fish both from our own seas and from British waters, Mr. 

 Dannevig having brought with him a number of plaice and 

 soles which have been placed in a protected place in Port 



