104 



would accrue to the community at large. Whenever aid from 

 the Treasury is given to the fisheries of Ireland to the extent it 

 is accorded to those of Scotland, it is to be hoped that a yearly 

 sum will be specially appropriated to this valuable service. 



2nd. By providing means* for the construction of passages 

 for salmon over Mill and other dams,f or for opening gaps. 



3rd. By providing for the removal of natural, and some minor 

 artificial, Obstructions. 



Barriers are often made in the upper parts of rivers, with large 

 stones between rocks, for the purpose of narrowing the channel, 

 in the passes of which various sorts of nets are placed to trap 

 the ascending or descending fish and fry. Powers to remove 



* The Board of Public Works have a large staff of engineers under their orders 

 in different parts of Ireland, whose services might often be available to make the 

 requisite plans and estimates for passes over Mill-dams, or for the removal of 

 natural obstructions. 



' There have been constant applications made to have the passes which are 

 required under the 5 and 6 Victoria in all mill-weirs, passes over mill-weirs 

 erected after the passing of this Act ; parties have made applications recently 

 to have that done : I have brought some of those cases before the Commissioners, 

 and the board were willing and anxious to do it; but the question arose where 

 were the funds to employ an engineer ? In one case recently of a miller, the 

 board suggested that he should make this pass ; that he himself should send some 

 one, if he could, to make the plan, and submit it to the board. The miller was 

 quite willing to do that. It is in a remote part of the West of Ireland, and he 

 wrote to say that he could not get a competent person to make the plan, but 

 that he was quite ready to adopt any plan which they made. Then the question 

 arose; we had no engineer to do it, and it has been suspended<dn consequence.' 

 Evidence of W. J. Ffennell, esq f , p. 215. 



t It is desirable that all persons should clearly understand that such regula- 

 tions of Mill-dykes as the law provides for can be effected without in any degree 

 causing injury to the milling power, by taking advantage of the overflow of 

 waste water, and so concentrating a sufficient portion of it as to enable fish to 

 ascend or descend without difficulty; and it is well to remark, that the erection 

 of mill-dams, if judiciously arranged in their construction, so far from being an 

 injury to the fisheries, may in very many instances be serviceable, by ponding 

 the water, and thus creating depths sufficient to harbour and protect the brood 

 and parent fish, during their required sojourn in the fresh water. 



The importance to Ireland of the water of her rivers as a moving power must 

 be duly appreciated, it being in the absence of coal, the chief natural support of 

 her manufactures : but, unfortunately the interests of the fisheries, though not 

 overlooked in the statutes, have suffered by failure to enforce them. Mr. Smith, 

 of Deanston, was the inventor of an ingenious contrivance, a ladder or ' salmon- 

 stair,' of stone or wood, up the watery steps of which the fish can ascend. By 

 the adaption of this means it is quite possible to reconcile the interests of fisher- 

 men with those of mill and factory owners. 



The report of the Select Committee observes : ' the case of mill- weirs appears 

 to be peculiar. They do not obstruct navigation. They are capable of being so 

 constructed as not to injure the passage of fish. They afford employment to 

 capital and to labour. It is, therefore, the opinion of this committee that every 

 facility should be given to the public in the construction of ladders and other 

 means of passage for the fish over mill-weirs, provided such erections do not 

 injure the milling power, and the present legal rights of mill-owners.' 



The legislature appears to have overlooked a class of obstructions where these 

 dams exist in tributary streams, in which sufficient private interest would not 

 accrue, or where the expense of making a pass, pro bono publico, would not be 

 encountered. These cases perhaps constitute a claim to be defrayed by the 

 public, unless a more efficient remedy be provided by legislation. See evidence of 

 Counsellor Alcock, 1849, p. 494. 



