150 



Note. The law is distinct with respect to the duty of the Commis- 

 sioners to cause all spur walls to be reduced to twenty feet, and in the 

 narrow rivers the Commissioners have a power to require a lesser length 

 than twenty feet; but this latter duty is only imposed by them upon 

 application being made. This portion of the section is rather vague. 

 Section 58 provides, that boxes, cribs, and cruives, shall be regulated 

 according to the provisions of the Act. Sections 59 and 60 provide, 

 that in such cases as the above, and in which no compensation is to be 

 paid, the Commissioners shall have power to make or open, or under 

 their warrant cause to be made or opened such gaps, and such spur 

 walls, and such cruives, to be regulated. Section 95 provides, that the 

 expense of executing such works shall be recoverable from the parties 

 omitting or committing, by civil bill. Section 63 provides, that in all 

 mill, navigation, and irrigation weirs to be built after 1842 (the passing 

 of the Act), passes shall be made for the fish. 



For this purpose no funds are required further than those necessary 

 for survey and plan ; and as the Board of Works have upon their staff 

 engineers for general purposes, and with fixed salaries, we think this 

 service should be performed by them, and that the Act clearly intended 

 that it should. This is a matter of great importance to the fisheries; 

 and the neglect in carrying out the provisions of the law from the com- 

 mencement, creates a difficulty which would otherwise not exist. It 

 is this : when a weir is being built, there is little, if any, expense in- 

 curred by the builder in making the pass; whereas, after it has been 

 built, there may be considerable expense, attended with some difficulty, 

 vexation, and inconvenience. 



REMARKS. We consider that the matters contained in these sections 

 are amply provided for ; and the only thing remaining to be done, is 

 for the Commissioners to carry out the plain provisions of the law ; 

 that no application to them is necessary; therefore, that the duty is 

 peremptory, not only according to the spirit of the Act in its general 

 context, but by special provision. There are no funds to be provided, 

 either from the public purse or from private parties. A legal difficulty 

 might certainly arise, with respect to opening and widening some 

 gaps, under the proviso in the 41st section, and the first part of the 

 42nd section, which exempt weirs in which no queen's share could be 

 made or enforced by law, previous to the passing of the Act; but there 

 are many weirs in Ireland upon which no controversy could arise upon 

 these points. 



REGULATION OP FISHING AND MILL WEIRS, WHEN COMPENSATION is 

 TO BE MADE. Sections 41 to 53, provide for making queen's shares in 

 fishing weirs, in which gaps could not be enforced by law, before the 

 passing of the Act, and for which compensation shall be made. 



REMARKS. The whole of this legislation has been a dead letter, and 

 is likely to continue so, unless the law is altered. The proviso of the 

 41st section, and the first part of the 42nd section, in recognising the 

 existence of weirs in which by law no queen's shares could be en- 

 forced previous to the passing of the Act, and failing to define under 

 what circumstances they could be enforced, leaves the question in a very 

 unsatisfactory shape. The exception contained in those sections clearly 

 refers to the 18th section of 26 Geo. 111., c. 50, repealed, which saved 

 from liability to prostration, weirs of which proprietors have had an 



