88 



queen's shares, as to the boundaries of fisheries, or the effects 

 of title or privilege thereto, to institute and carry on such 

 proceedings as may be necessary for the prosecution of all 

 parties offending against the law, or for determining questions 

 at issue between individuals and the public. These steps they 

 might be empowered to take, upon the application of the 

 aggrieved parties, or if the modes (apparently illegal) were 

 persisted in after due notice. 



In order to enable the Board to check at the outset the 

 erection of engines in illegal places, it would be well that it 

 were necessary to give public notice of the intention to set 

 them up, and also, that all parties intending to maintain those 

 at present in use, should serve notice to that effect. 



IV. PRIVATE RIGHTS. The providing larger measures to 

 repress encroachments on * several' fisheries and private rights. 

 It has been shown that where these are well defined there is 

 sufficient power to punish for trespass.* 



The 114th section of 5 & 6 Victoria, hazards the security 

 of ' several' fisheries by apparently making them public when 

 the rivers in which they are enjoyed may be made navigable. 

 This is a serious evil, as it may tend to check the disposition to 

 increase inland navigation. 



V. QUEEN'S SHARES. The provision of a tribunal or Com- 

 mission, by which it may be ascertained what weirs at present 

 erected entirely across rivers, are liable, under the existing 

 laws, to have enforced the opening of queen's shares or gaps 

 through them ; and also to provide, upon this being ascer- 

 tained, that the openings may be peremptorily made.f 



* The Irish Society have conservators and water-keepers, but the establish- 

 ment is not yet completed. The situation is not a popular one, and none but 

 respectable persons will be employed. There are besides, 120 regular water- 

 keepers appointed and paid by the lessees. The water-keeping may be con- 

 sidered effective, so far as it extends ; but there are extensive mountain dis- 

 tricts which may be said to be almost wholly unprotected, owing, first, to the 

 heavy additional expense it would occasion, and in the next place, to the diffi- 

 culty of procuring proper water-keepers ; as in some of these districts, poachers 

 have been allowed to continue their illegal practices so long undisturbed, that 

 they look upon any of their neighbours turning water-keepers, as traitors, and 

 persecute not only those who might be willing to enlist in the service of the 

 Fisheries, but their families also. In some excellent spawning rivers, the 

 lessees cannot prevail on a single individual to act as water-keeper ; and thus 

 the salmon are left the undisputed and undeserved prey of marauders, whose 

 motto is, "a stick out of the wood, or a fish out of the water, is neither sin nor 

 crime." These illegal practices have been so long carried on with impunity, 

 that many of the smaller classes of farmers, and decent people too, in their 

 other relations of life, if they do not actually take part in poaching themselves, 

 look on without dissatisfaction or disapprobation at the practices prevailing 

 around them.' Evidence, 1836, p. 23. 



f With respect to Solid weirs, your Committee have one or two additional 

 observations to offer. It appears that for years past there have existed weirs 

 of this description on many of the rivers of Ireland, used for the purpose of 

 taking fish ; and that the effect of such weirs has been, on the whole, most 

 injurious to the fisheries and the inland navigation. It has been noticed that 



