40 ADMINISTHATIGN OF THE FISHERIES ACT. 



Pislieries Act of 1881. After repeated warnings of the con- 

 sequences which must follow the persistent use of these 

 illegal instruments for the capture of fish, the Commissioners 

 had left to them no alternative hut to seize their nets, and 

 otherwise hring the offending persons under the penalties of 

 the law. Of course men who had hitherto considered the 

 finny tribes in our harbours and rivers their legitimate and 

 indeed absolute property might be pardoned for considering 

 such prohibitory steps as really aggressive ; self-interest and 

 convenience prevented many of them from caring for, or even 

 apprehending, the inevitable consequences which vrould follow 

 the attempt to supply an ever-increasing population with fish 

 under conditions so extravagant and so wasteful ; but it was 

 nevertheless the duty of the authorities to conserve this por- 

 tion of the public estate by insisting upon the production of 

 fish on lines more favourable to the economy and continuity 

 of supply. So far, however, from appreciating these efforts, 

 the fishermen succeeded in invoking the aid of Parliament 

 to relieve them from some fancied hardships. They obtained 

 a Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly, under the 

 presidency of Mr. A. Pw. Premlin, the member for Redfern, 

 who, after the examination of witnesses, brought up a Report 

 stating that the Pisheries Act, 1881, had not fulfilled the 

 expectations of its framers ; that it had lessened the supply of 

 fish, placed unwise restrictions upon our important fisheries 

 and worked very harshly and oppressively to those engaged 

 in fishing for a livelihood, and recommending an extension 

 of the lengths and a reduction in the sizes of meshes of the 

 nets which might be used, and an alteration in the sizes of 

 the fish which it should be legal to capture. The Select 

 Committee concluded its labours on the 20th April ; in the 

 following May Sir Alexander Stuart, the Colonial Secretary 

 at the time, introduced a Bill to Parliament to amend the 

 Pisheries Act : it resulted in the enactment of the Pisheries 

 Act Amendment Act, 1883. This Act allowed the dimensions 

 of nets for use in tidal waters to be determined by regulations, 

 and relieved offenders convicted under certain sections of 

 the 1881 Act from the forfeiture of their unlawful nets, 

 except in cases where a previous conviction had been recorded. 

 Under the power thus conferred the gar-fish net was reduced 

 from one and a half to one and a quarter inches. This Act, 

 together with the principal Act, is tlie law by which the 

 marine fisheries have since been controlled, and it has been 



