The total rated valuation was 12,366. It must be remembered that 

 the public fisheries, which comprise the chief portion of tidal rivers, 

 are not rateable ; only fixed engines are rated, many private c several* 

 interests escaped notice, and are not included ; on the other hand, there 

 are a few oyster and eel fisheries mixed up with it. 



WATERFORD. That it bears a very small proportion to the real 

 annual amount of these fisheries, may be learnt from the fact that the 

 export from Waterford alone, exclusive of home consumption, has 

 amounted latterly from 15,000 to 17,000 a year.* The private rights 

 in the Waterford estuary are rated at 882. 



SLANEY. The private rights on the Slaney are rated at but 35 a 

 year, while the annual average value of the fishery of that river was 

 estimated, a few years back, at 1,500 a year. More than four thou- 

 sand pounds worth of salmon were taken in 1842 ; and Hector, a native 

 of Scotland, the experienced owner of bag nets at the mouth of the 

 estuary, stated in evidence, that, if properly fished and protected, it 

 might be made worth 7,000 per annum. Fourth Annual Report of 

 Commissioners of Fisheries, p. 88. 



MOY, BANN, AND FOYLE. The river Moy fishery is rated to the poor 

 law valuation at 1,768 15s. per annum; but is believed by good 

 authority to be worth 4,000 a year. Evidence, 1849, p. 279. 



In 1 835, the Irish Society received as rent for their great fishery of 

 the Moy, the Bann, and Foyle, 1,250. The annual expense of pro- 

 tecting them amounted to 1,500 or 1,600. Four hundred men were 

 employed as water keepers, and yet many of the tributary streams were 

 unattended to. The lessees complained of the expenses of protection 

 in Ireland, amounting to a tax nearly equal to the rent while in 

 Scotland, the charge of protecting the Tay was not more than two and 

 a half per cent, on the rent. The amount of sales of salmon taken in 

 these three rivers amounted, the year previous, to the sum of 17,450. 

 The cost of ice imported by the lessees from Norway, when the country 

 supply failed, was calculated at 1,500 a year. The employment given 

 by them, before the year 1824, amounted to nearly 800 persons. 

 Second Report of Commissioners of Enquiry, 1836, p. 20. 



Owing to this careful preservation, the value of the fishery had greatly 

 increased. The annual average produce of the Foyle, for the sixteen 

 years previous to the introduction of stake-nets, had been 17,363 

 salmon, weighing 43 tons, 8cwt., 141bs. The produce for the last nine 

 years had been 53,603 salmon, weighing 140 tons, 14 cvvt., 14Jlbs. 

 Thus, in addition to an increase of about fifty per cent, in the quantity 

 of fish taken by draught nets, nearly as large a take as in former years 

 by these alone, was made by the newly introduced stake-nets. By a 

 steady perseverance in this system, coupled with efficient engines for 

 capture, and stimulated by that care which a rented private property 

 receives, the produce of this river alone has been raised from an average 

 of forty-three tons, previous to 1823, to a steady return of nearly two 

 hundred tons, and very nearly, as is believed, to three hundred tons in 

 the year 1842. This would show a power of increase of from five to 

 seven fold. Fourth Report of Commissioners of Fisheries, p. 10, 1846. 



The produce in 1842, was 83,106 salmon. The evidence of the 



* Report of Select Committee on Inland Fisheries, (Ireland,) 1849, p. 451. 



