72 



vindicate their system as pursued in this department, as being 

 in accordance with good policy. 



" In concluding our Report on the Sea, and introducing the 

 subject of the Inland Fisheries, we feel it a duty, in the present 

 critical state of affairs in Ireland, when the subject of promoting 

 these important sources of industrial occupation will be natu- 

 rally much considered, to point attention to the principles of 

 the Act 5 & 6 Vic., cap. 106, which repealed all previous 

 Fishery Acts, and after long consideration and discussion in 

 both Houses of Parliament, laid the basis of a uniform policy 

 and settlement of the Fishery Laws. We also earnestly solicit 

 attention to the four annual reports of this Board, made pre- 

 vious to the famine ; to our monthly reports during its first 

 pressure, and to our last and present annual report, as contain- 

 ing very fully the results of our experience, and the opinions 

 which years of anxious study of the whole question have formed. 



" We are quite aware of the disappointment which will be 

 felt, and the dissatisfaction often openly expressed against a 

 public board that declines to accede to or recommend some of 

 the various projects which the emergency of the moment, 

 praiseworthy zeal, limited experience, or personal interests, so 

 often and so plausibly urge for adoption, as a sudden means of 

 raising from a state of depression to one of prosperity the 

 fisheries of the country. But, impressed as we are with the 

 conviction that our paramount duty is to promote steady pro- 

 gress, the ultimate success of the fisheries, and the annual in- 

 crease of the quantity of good fish taken for consumption, we 

 feel that as long as we are charged by Parliament with the ad- 

 ministration of these laws, we are bound to act upon this 

 policy ; and we have, on so many occasions, found the admitted 

 advantage of acting on our own principles, rather than yield to 

 the urgency of claims for interference, preferred with the 

 greatest plausibility, and even evidence of the parties feeling 

 themselves satisfied with the truth of their position, that we 

 are encouraged to persevere in the course hitherto adopted." 



An extract then follows from the first annual report. " We 

 have thus placed upon record, by the Commissioners, imme- 

 diately after the passing of the Act, the principles by which they 

 understood they were to be guided, and which we believe were 

 sanctioned by the Government ; whilst the best test is afforded 

 that no greater amount of interference on our part was sanc- 

 tioned by your Lordships, (the Lords of the Treasury,) in the 

 fact that no pecuniary means have been placed at the disposal 

 of the Board for the purpose ; nor have we ever received in- 

 structions to act upon any other policy." 



The question arises here, whether the views of a Ministry, 

 prior to legislation, have been correctly interpreted by those 



