MONOPOLY OF THE SALMON EIVEES. 383 



river must spend a considerable sum of money, and Cana- 

 dian legislators know very well that circulation of money 

 in a newly-settled country is very useful. Under the 

 present system not one shilling is spent for a pound that 

 would be spent were the angling not monopolized. 

 Lessees in many instances stay a week or two on their 

 rivers, and then leave them for the rest of the season ; 

 sometimes they never visit them at all. The casual 

 angler cannot get a day's fishing, even when the river 

 is deserted ; that is to say the sportsman cannot, for this 

 dog-in-the-manger system is a harvest to the poacher. It 

 is a case of absentee landlordism. The settlers who live 

 on the river have no interest in preserving the river ; 

 just the contrary, the angling public, whose presence 

 would put money in their pockets, being excluded ; so, as 

 a rule, they turn poachers, and are frequently aided and 

 abetted by the underpaid guardians of the river. It 

 is said, in extenuation of this policy, that the gentle- 

 men who job the rivers at nominal rents do not make 

 money of them by subletting; but this to the casual 

 angler is a misfortune. It would be better for him if 

 the lessee would sublet, as it certainly would be better 

 for the rivers. Anglers are the natural protectors of the 

 salmon ; but as things are managed in Canada at present 

 their interest in protecting the fisheries is reduced to a 

 minimum. Instances have come under my own know- 

 ledge where hundreds of salmon have been destroyed by 

 the spear and the sweep-net on a river which the lessee 

 rarely visited, but from which he excluded anglers ; had 

 he not been so churlish they would have protected his 

 river for him. It is a monstrous injustice that a man 



