FISHERIES PEESEEYATIOIS^ ASSOCIATION. 



'JpxesitienL 

 HIS GKACE THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, Northumbeilimd House. 



'^'ut-'JPxtsihnt, 

 LORD DE BLAQUIEKE, 9, Stratfuid Place. 



O'ouiitii. 



Lord Abinger, 48, Chester Square. 



Wentworth Beaumont, Esq., M.P., 144, Piccadilly. 



F. T. BucKLAND, Esq., Athenaeum Club. 



HiGFORD Burr, Esq., Aldermaston, Reading, aiid 23, Eaton 



Place. 

 Lord de Blaqoiere, 9, Stratford Place. 

 R. Aeercromby Duff, Esq., M.P., 40, Mount Street, Gros- 



venor .Square. 

 Francis Francis, Esq., The Fii-s, Twickenham. 

 Capt. Frank Hawkins, R.N., Army and Navy Club. 

 Sir J. Hawlev, Bart., 34, Eaton Place. 



P. HOOD, Esq., Treasurer 



Peter Hood, Esq., M.D., 23, Lower Seymour Street. 

 Colonel the Hon, H. F. Keane, R.E., 76, JernijTi Street. 

 His Grace the Duke op Northumberland, Northumberland 



House. 

 Colonel Pryse, M.P., Army and Navy Club. 

 Lord Saltoix, Ness Castle, Inverness, N.B. 

 Martin T. Smith, Esq., 13, Upper Belgrave Street, Belgrave 



Square. 

 Sir Charles Tailor, Bart., 20, King Street, St. James'. 

 Colonel ^\'iiiT£, Sligo, 



SIR SAMUEL SCOTT, Bart. & Co., 1, Cavendish Square. 



REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 1st, 1868. 



The Council beg to submit to the Members their Report for the past year. 



Lord de Bl.aquiere having expressed a wish to retire from the Presidency of the Asso- 

 ciation in favour of His Grace the Duke of Northumberland (who, as Earl Percy, had 

 already last year been elected a Member of the Council), and the Duke having accepted the 

 post, the Council have much pleasure in stating that His Grace has been chosen President 

 accordingly, 



Lord de Blaquiere at the same time, the Council are extremely happy to say, consents 

 to give to the Association, as Vice-President, the benefit of his continued services and influence. 



It is with much gratification the Council announce the accession to their Board of Lord 

 Abinger, who was unanimously elected a Member of the Council in February last. 



They also have to announce that, in appreciation of their valuable services to important 

 Salmon Fisheries, Joseph Dodds, Esq., Honorary Secretary of the Tees Salmon Fishery Land- 

 owners' Association, and John Lloyd, Esq^, of Huntington Court, Hereford, a Conservator of 

 the Wye, Usk, and Ebbw Fisheries, have been elected Honorary Members of the Association. 



With respect to the great object which the Council have so constantly held in view, and 

 so long striven to effect — the prevention of the pollution of the Rivers of the kingdom — they 

 grieve to say that they see no chance t/iis Session of the hope which they ventured to express in 

 their last Report being fulfilled, viz., of obtaining a remedial measure for that evil. 



The state of the public business in Parliament, the position of Parliament itself, and the 

 unexpected inaction of the Government as represented by the Home Secretary, alike preclude 

 the expectation that any such measure can possibly be introduced during the present Session. 



Steadfast, however, to their purpose of inducing, if possible, the Government to bring in 

 a Bill on the subject, on the 6th August last a Deputation from the Association, introduced by 

 their President (Lord de Blaquiere), and whicli had the advantage of being joined by Lord 

 Northwick, and by Col. Sykes, Mr. Candlish, and other Members of Parliament and 

 persons of influence, had an audience of the Home Secretary, when the question, both on the 

 paramount ground of the public health and as it affected the Fislieries, was most earnestly pressed 

 on the consideration of Mr. Gathorne Hardy, and the reply of Mr. Hardy to the Deputation 

 yvas such as to create the belief that the Government would not let the present Session i)ass 

 without taking legislative action in the matter, that reply being that " ho did not intend to con- 

 " tinue the investigations, as he believed the experience gained by the inquiries into a few rivers ivotild 

 " govern the whole." 



A few days after this Deputation the Commissioners on the Pollution of Rivers made their 

 Report to the Home Secretary on the state of the Aire and Calder. Of this Rejjort it may 

 sufRce to say that, dreadful and disgusting as was the picture presented in the Commissioners' 

 former Reports of the pollution of the Upper Thames and the Lea, the description they give of 

 the polluted condition of the Aire and Calder far surpasses that picture in its worst and most 

 revolting features. 



Notwithstanding that Report, however, and tlie auspicious answer to the Deputation just 

 stated, to the Council's great surprise and mortification, the Hijmi; Secretary, when questioned, 

 on the 24th February last, on the subject by the Member for Sunderland (Mr. CaxdlishJ, 

 " answered that " he was not prepared to legislate in the mutfer this Session, and that he wax 

 " aboid to appoint a fresh Commission to continue the inquiries;" and, since that declaration, the 

 Right Honourable Gentleman has appointed such fresh Commission. 



