ADMINISTRATION OF THE EISHEKIES ACT. 37 



water within reach of the metropolis. The Tuggerah Beach 

 Lakes, Lake Macquarie, the Hawkeshury, Parramatta, 

 George's and Port Hacking Rivers, with their respective 

 tributaries and afl3.uents, having each been depleted to an 

 alarming extent by reason of the hitherto practically unre- 

 stricted use of the fishermen's nets and graballs, the Com- 

 mission took the very judicious step of withdrawing large 

 portions of each of these important fishing-grounds from the 

 operations of netters. The wisdom of these reservations very 

 soon became apparent in the shoals of young fish of all 

 kinds which made their appearance throughout the thus net- 

 restricted waters. This was the first efiiective step taken in 

 New South Wales to secure a continuity of supply; its practice 

 is continued to the present time. The next movement was to 

 regulate the lengths of fishing-nets and the dimensions of the 

 meshes according to the new law; but in order that this 

 restriction should not press too heavily upon the fishermen, 

 they were allowed to continue the use of the nets they possessed 

 at the time for more than fifteen months from the date the 

 Fisheries Act of 1881 was passed into law. 



While thus providing for the recovery of the natural 

 supplies of fish in all the waters which had been so completely 

 fished out by improvident fishermen, the Commissioners were 

 not unmindful of their obligations to develop the fish supply 

 in other directions also. They induced the Government to 

 import valuable fishing-gear, such as is used in England, 

 America, and Norway, in order that their applicability to the 

 waters of this Colony might be tested, and also that our 

 fishermen might be instructed in the modes of fishing prac- 

 tised in those countries. The implements thus imported 

 consisted of a purse-seine net, such as is used by the cod- 

 fishers on the coast of Maine, North America ; a trammel 

 net of Erench origin, consisting of a loose net of small 

 meshes or sheeting between two tighter nets of larger 

 meshes called walling, and usually shot with the tide 

 in the eddy of a large rock, also in sheltered bays and 

 deep-water harbours. A collection of glass hooks and 

 floats, as used by the fishermen on the Norwegian coast, 

 a herring-net and otter trawl, and also a beam trawl-net, 

 similar to the kind employed in the fisheries on the east coast 

 of England. All these implements were displayed to the 

 utmost advantage in the Garden Palace, an edifice of immense 

 capacity, erected for the Great International Exhibition, 



