THE FISHERIES LAWS. 27 



and as from these quantities only those of a saleable 

 size and of the more choice species \Yere selected, the 

 large remainder of the stranded fish was left unused and to 

 rot on the beaches, whither for the most part it would be 

 carried by the next flow of tide. It will be quite easy to 

 imagine the extent of the destruction and waste thus created. 

 The culpability of these effective processes of extermina- 

 tion was readily admitted, but the plea urged in extenua- 

 tion was that while one section of the fishermen practised 

 them the other section had to do likewise. The outcome of 

 the labours of the Select Committee was the enactment of the 

 Fisheries Act 1865, which came to be popularly known as 

 Dick Driver's Act. This Act made a division of the year into 

 winter and summ6r months and specified the description of 

 nets to be used during the period of each division, and in 

 order to put a check on the " stalling " system it made it 

 a penal offence to fix or stake any net within a mile of the 

 shore, or at the mouth of any river. . The administration 

 was entrusted to the Police and Customs Departments, but 

 the oversight" bestowed does not seem to have been very 

 stringent, for in a short ti,me fishermen began to resume 

 the practice of stalling, only contenting themselves with 

 taking necessary precautions to avoid detection. In the year 

 1880, however, the fisheries question was taken up in real 

 earnest by the Government of the day. Sir Henry Parkes, 

 K.C.M.G., being the Premier, when a Hoyal Commission, 

 under the Presidency of the Honorable William Macleay, 

 M.L.C., and composed of gentlemen scientifically and prac- 

 tically qualified for the task, was appointed to inquire into 

 the marine and fresh water fisheries and oyster fisheries of 

 the Colony, and to advise of the best means for developing and 

 preserving tliem. This Commission did its work so well and 

 so thoroughly and collected such valuable and complete in- 

 formation aboT't the resources and possibilities of the fisheries 

 that it merits grateful remembrance by every one professing 

 interest in the advancement of the Colony's industries. 

 Nothing at all equal to the information or the suggestions 

 which the Commission's report contains and which is largely 

 quoted from throughout this pamphlet had ever before been 

 collected or published, and the value thereof can scarcely be 

 too highly rated or appreciated. So intimately indeed does 

 work of this Royal Commission seem to have become 

 identified with the subsequent progress and development of 



