27 



Committee of Inquiry is directed solely to the subject of the 

 Sea Fisheries, to which their zealous labours had been chiefly 

 and most usefully devoted. As the present endeavour is to 

 draw attention to the injurious results to River Fisheries, by 

 extending to their management a policy more suitable to those 

 of the Sea, the following extracts will show that a system of 

 Government control was deemed essential for the direction and 

 superintendence of the latter on the grounds of their public 

 nature ; from which will follow, that the same would be requi- 

 site for rivers, in cases where not only the property of the fish 

 in them is for the most part as commonable as in the sea, but 

 on account of the mixed state of the rights creating a frequent 

 antagonism of private and public privileges, absolutely requir- 

 ing greater attention and powers of control. 



To vest some public department with * the chief superin- 

 tendence and control of all matters connected with the fisheries' 

 was accordingly advised as a primary step. A vessel of the 

 royal navy was to be furnished at the requisition of such body 

 for protection and assistance, accompanied by a competent 

 authority for the preservation of the peace ; ' local regulations' 

 were to be instituted by them, either for the due conduct of 

 the fishermen, for the preservation of the peace, or for pro^ 

 tection ; and power given ' to frame and enforce rules and re- 

 gulations' with respect to piers, harbours, and other public 

 accommodations, such as were public property, or for which 

 pecuniary aid in construction and maintenance would be given. 

 It is plain that numerous and intricate duties would hereby be 

 confided to the superintending body, irrespective of those 

 attendant upon the second section, the present subject. These 

 were intrusted, by the Enactment which (after a lapse of 

 several years*) followed, as the result of this report, to the 

 Commissioners of Public Works, a board at that time well 

 suited, with the help of experienced assistance, to govern the 

 maritime section of the fisheries, and especially to superintend 

 requirements in which engineering skill was indispensable. 



Still, many matters involved in the proper government of 

 the entire Irish fisheries are foreign in their nature to those 

 devolving upon a Board composed of engineers, whose atten- 

 tion is occupied in discharging a multiplicity of other important 

 employments, (for which they are professionally qualified), and 

 who have not had opportunities of acquiring sufficient know- 

 ledge on a peculiar subject, appearing to require, not only 

 undivided attention, but a long and practical acquaintance 

 with all its bearings. 



How far these matters have been thereby disadvantaged, 



* A Bill was introduced in 1838, but did not pass into a law, and nothing was 

 effected until August, 1842. 



