164 APPENDIX. 



to the owners of lands upon the banks of a river, to 

 use nets, that question will be examined into. It is 

 submitted, that the enactment to that effect in the 

 Act of 1842, is deficient in sound policy, and was 

 not made, upon a due consideration of the question. 

 The owner of the soil, or proprietor upon the banks 

 of a river, has certain rights connected with the 

 stream, but these rights are subservient and second- 

 ary to the rights of the public in the preservation of 

 the fish. — We have a right to the moderate use of 

 an animal for the purposes of man, but we have not 

 a right to exterminate it. 



In conclusion, it may be observed that the answers 

 received, afford ample evidence of the depressed state 

 of the Salmon-fisheries throughout the country. 

 During the present year some of the largest fish- 

 eries have been surrendered, and in districts where 

 public rights of fishery were largely exercised, great 

 destitution has been caused. Both public and pri- 

 vate rights have fallen before the Act of 1842, and 

 both are now in a state of complete prostration. In 

 the Waterford district alone, 1,120 families have 

 been deprived of their livelihood — the number of 

 cotmen in that district in 1842, being 1,200, and the 

 registered number during the season just terminated 

 being 80. Similar results have taken place in other 

 districts, and the aggregate presents a sad spectacle 

 of destitution, caused by the mismanagement of the 

 fisheries, combined with effects resulting from an im- 

 provident and inequitable law, passed without due 



