THE FISHERIES LAWS. 29 



assistant to you and each o£ you in the execution of these presents : And we 

 appoint you, the said William Macleay, Esquire, to be President of this 

 our Commission. 



In testimony whereof, We have caused these our Letters to be made 

 Patent, and the G-reat Seal of our said Colony to be hereunto 

 ai£xed. 



Witness our right, trusty, and well-beloved Councillor, Sir 

 Augustus William Pkedeeick Spencee Loftus (com- 

 monly called Lord Augustus Loftus), Knight Grand 

 Cross of our Most Honorable Order of the Bath, our 

 Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our Colony of New- 

 South Wales and its Dependencies, at Government House, 

 Sydney, in New South Wales aforesaid, this sixth day of 

 January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 

 hundred and eighty, and in the forty-third year of our 

 Eeign, 



AUGUSTUS LOPTUS. 



By His Excellency's Command, 



HENET PAEKES, 



Entered on record b]'' me, in Eegister of Pateis^ts, No. 10, pages 151-9, 

 this eighth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty. 



CEITCHETT WALKEE 



(For the Colonial Secretary and Eegistrar of Eecords). 



The outcome of the report of this Ptoyal Commission, was 

 the Eisheries Act of 1881, elsewhere cursorily referred to in 

 relation to its enactments for the control of the Oyster 

 Eisheries. In moving the second reading of the Bill Sir 

 Henry Partes said : 



I may explain that the Bill is framed with the intention of carrying out 

 the main recommendations of the Commission which sat la&t year to inquire 

 into the state of the fisheries of the Colony, and to suggest measures for 

 their development and general improvement. The Commission, it will be 

 recollected, was composed of gentlemen, all of whom had, more or less, a 

 practical knowledge of fishing, several of them having devoted themselves for 

 many years to the pursuit ; and they fairly represented different classes of 

 society — men who fished for sport as well as men who followed the pursuit as a 

 means of livelihood. Altogether I think the Commission embraced nearly 

 the whole availaT^le talent in the Colony for investigating the subject. Their 

 report, which was very carefully prepared, and which may be well described 

 as a very valuable document, went thoroughly into the state of our fisheries, 

 of our supplies of fish, from a food point of view, and they suggested with 

 great minuteness various steps to be taken for the better preservation of 

 the supplies and for the better regulation of the fisheries. The present 

 measure is substantially the outcome of their investigation. The Bill which 

 I have the honour to ask the House to read the second time proposes the 

 Bew machinery for the management of the fisheries, and it makes provision 

 for the objects which arfi to be attained by this machinery. It proposes to 

 repeal existing Acts and a portion of the Land Act which now empowers 



