80 



enjoyment of the same, and the best means of removing such 

 obstructions." 



The Report of the Committee was drawn up, after a labo- 

 rious investigation of the matters referred to them, and pre- 

 sented to the House, accompanied by voluminous evidence, and 

 an appendix of documents, occupying when printed more than 

 700 folio pages, and publishing experienced views and opinions, 

 numerous plans, and Government reports and correspondence ; 

 thus laying open to the public a mass of valuable information, 

 fully evincing the need for parliamentary inquiry into the law 

 and circumstances of our Inland Fisheries a property of con- 

 siderable value, and evidently capable of great and progressive 

 improvement. As this would mainly depend on the constitu- 

 tion of the law, and the facilities given for protection and 

 further development, considering also the growing neglect of 

 all classes on the subject, and that doubts existed as to many 

 conflicting claims, involving questions of public and private 

 right, the Committee strongly recommended the immediate 

 attention of Parliament to the adoption of expedient alterations 

 in the existing law. 



The points of primary importance to which attention is urged 

 in the Report, are : a speedy revision of the existing Fishery 

 Laws, with a view to amend and consolidate them : a provision 

 for the removal of obstructions to navigation wherever they 

 are injurious or illegal : a power to give secure titles to owners 

 of several fisheries, and private rights of fishing, so as to pre- 

 clude future litigation : further powers of protection, and for 

 the repression of poaching : the need of funds for making 

 queen's shares in solid weirs, and passages for fish over mill- 

 dams : a cheap, speedy, and certain process of abatement of 

 illegal obstructions and fishing engines : and a provision for the 

 more efficient administration of the fishery department of the 

 executive government. The Report has, it is apparent, been 

 prepared with great care the various intricate questions having 

 been sedulously investigated. The volume will remain an 

 estimable guide for further progress towards a full proficiency 

 of an interesting branch of our national resources. 



Without proposing to do more than advert to the important 

 subject of the obstructions presented by solid dam weirs to Navi- 

 gation,* it may be remarked, that any impediments to the exten- 

 sion of that means of transit are, in the deficiency of railways, to 

 be deplored. Sir Robert Kane, in his valuable work on the Indus- 

 trial Resources of Ireland, has pointed out the peculiar natural 



* Where stake-weirs exist to the prejudice of navigation, they are only 

 maintained by the sufferance of the public as regards the use of navigation, and 

 no length of time can prevent them from being amenable to this objection. 

 Evidence of T. Spring Rice, esq., M.P., 1825. 



