35 



the gauntlet of a hundred drift nets, was finally transfixed by 

 the night poacher in the very act of multiplying its species ! 



The advantages proposed to be conferred on the proprietors 

 in the interior* by the Bill, were to be weighed against those of 

 the new apparatus, and made dependent on them, in effect, 

 were expected to accrue out of them, by voluntary contribu- 

 tions, or by assessment, the burden of which would fall on the 

 owners of the commercially valuable fisheries. The result has 

 proved that voluntary associations have failed. Such contribu- 

 tions have not been made ; and it is to be apprehended that 

 the recent measure of assessment will only provide funds suffi- 

 cient for the purposes of protection, and inadequate for those 

 auxiliary means of increase, the provision of passes through 

 natural and artificial obstructions, on the general employment 

 of which the full development of our river fisheries now mainly 

 depends. 



Those means which are required to be attended to by the 

 Authorities (without the preliminary step of application, or the ne- 

 cessity of funds being provided by the parties interested), are: 



1st. The opening or enlarging queen's gaps in weirs subject 

 by law to have them. 



2nd. The regulation of the length of spur- walls in all dams. 



3rd. The proper construction of boxes, cribs, or cruives, in 

 fishing weirs. 



4th. The causing passes to be provided in all newly erected 

 mill- weirs. 



It does not appear by the published proceedings of the Board 

 of Public Works that any of these requirements have been 

 acted upon by them, nor is it believed that they have been, to any 

 extent, although the Act has been a law more than seven years. 



The second class of productive measures is that where pre- 

 vious application, and the provision of funds by the parties 

 interested, are necessary : 



1st. Opening queen's gaps where the law could not have 



* The antagonistic claims to the ' property' of salmon in a large river may 

 be divided into three classes : 



I. Those at the mouth and along the coasts, generally employing stationary 

 contrivances. 



II. Those in the tideway, for the most part cot-men, using the public right 

 with drift or draft nets. 



III. Those in the fresh water portions, confined mostly to the use of the rod 

 and line. 



In point of fact every fishing station along the coast, or in a river, is an evil 

 to those more inland, and those above are in the position of considering all 

 means used below as more or less an interference with their powers. The ano- 

 maly must always exist that those who are most powerful for protective pur- 

 poses have the least means of reaping the eventual benefit. Let the law be 

 ever so favourable, any large proportion of the fish could never reach them, 

 because, as is well known, salmon hang in the tideways and channel during the 

 dry summer months, and do not ascend in any considerable numbers until the 

 floods of autumn, when ready to spawn, and the close season has begun. 



D2 



