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APPENDIX. 



i. 



SUGGESTIONS on the COURSE of the PROPOSED INVESTIGATION 

 into the SUBJECT of the IRISH FISHERIES. 



CONSULT and make an abstract of the principal provisions of the different 

 Acts of Parliament referring to the Fisheries, distinguishing those which 

 have been repealed, from those still in force. 



Consult the Reports of the Irish Fishery Board, presented to Parlia- 

 ment, their minute books and correspondence, with any other papers or 

 publications of the day, tending to give an account of the operations of 

 that period. 



Although it will be found that nearly the whole of the proceedings 

 at that time were connected with the system of Bounties, and no idea 

 of a renewal of such a system, in any degree can be admitted ; yet it is 

 necessary to record how the affairs were managed, and many useful 

 points unconnected with it, may incidentally be elicited. 



Consult the regulations adopted in other countries, more particularly 

 the various Acts of Parliament affecting the Fisheries of England and 

 Scotland; also the reports of any commissioners, boards, or committees, 

 or of any private societies or associations for the promotion of the 

 fisheries; to ascertain the measures that may have been, or still are 

 adopted for that purpose. 



Much information may probably be obtained from works published 

 on the subject, as also from Pamphlets, Reviews, &c. 



Endeavour to ascertain from these sources, as well as from inquiries, 

 as from persons conversant in the various branches of the business, and 

 experienced in the regulations adopted at the different Fishery Stations, 

 what are the measures that have been found beneficial, and those which 

 have proved otherwise. The object being to catch as great a quantity 

 of fish as can be taken, without the risk of producing scarcity in suc- 

 ceeding years ; various interesting subjects of inquiry present themselves, 

 as connected with this desideratum. 



It will be necessary to ascertain how far the restrictions, laid upon 

 different modes of fishing, the limits to the seasons, to the localities of 

 different fisheries, and to the kind of nets employed, are founded on 

 good principles; and whether some of these regulations have not origi- 

 nated in old and erroneous conceptions, or in the false principle of 

 encouraging the more imperfect methods adopted by the poorer class who 

 have not capital or means for the adoption of improved systems. 



The poor fishermen on the coast naturally support the latter principle, 

 on the plea of the cruelty of not enforcing restrictions on operations 

 depriving them, as they believe, of their only means of subsistence, and 

 thus reducing themselves and families to a state of beggary; but what- 

 ever other expedients may be adopted for their benefit, the principle of 



