28 



whether the management and improvement of the fisheries of 

 Ireland has received that attention it deserves, and how far 

 even the original intent of the instructions and consequent 

 enactment has been injuriously narrowed in carrying out, and 

 the extent to which this valuable arm of our national wealth 

 has suffered, or may for the future remain unstrengthened, 

 is now a question of some moment. 



Again, the gigantic operations set on foot throughout Ire- 

 land to relieve the unparalleled wants of her population, 

 imposed, and continue to impose on that Board an extent of 

 arduous services, for the performance of which alone it has 

 been doubted whether their powers were adequate. In the 

 hurried struggle to provide immediate sustenance for a famine- 

 stricken people, the intention of improving the future supply of 

 food through means of the fisheries was in part unattended to. 

 The sea fisheries, indeed, almost prostrated by the destitution, 

 received a healthy stimulus, but those of the interior remained 

 disregarded. 



The Salmon fisheries, so far from advancing in value since 

 the passing of the Act of 1842, have retrograded considerably. 

 The legalization and increased use of the Scotch stake-net, 

 (which, as observed in the " Suggestions," exhausts the supply 

 of fish ' to an extent that threatens a material diminution in 

 the stock for many years,') have accelerated the ' diminution of 

 fish throughout the South of Ireland' reported in 1836. 



The lessees and proprietors of the fisheries in the North also 

 complain of the provisions of the Act, and in their memorial to 

 the Lord Lieutenant in 1 848 assert, that ' the fisheries, under 

 the regime of the Fishery Board, have diminished nearly one 

 half/ That they are ' sensibly deteriorating' throughout Ire- 

 land is reported by the Board in the same year. 



It would be difficult to weigh the different causes to which 

 this result is attributable ; whether it proceeds from a general 

 disinclination to enforce the protective provisions of the law 

 during the unhappy state of the country ; or, on the other 

 hand, is owing to the inequity and insufficiency of the Act itself. 

 It may also partly be a consequence of the system of non-inter- 

 ference, the statute having remained a dead letter in many 

 matters in which the executive alone had the power to put it 

 into operation. 



Thus, the " maximum supply of fish" the fundamental pur- 

 port of the movement and the " interest of the public" 

 therein has not been attained. 



