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been felt by those who sanctioned the Act, and which is recognised in 

 the proviso to the 23rd section, in a way calculated to perpetuate liti- 

 gation and dispute, and leave the question of right, as between indi- 

 viduals and the public, pretty much as it stood before the passing of 

 the Act. 



Had the prohibition contained in the 22nd section, to erect stake- 

 weirs in the narrow portions of estuaries, or within one mile of the 

 mouths of rivers, been held inviolate, much less objection might be felt 

 upon the part of the public ; but the saving of weirs established for 

 twenty years in one case, and for ten years in another, contained in the 

 23rd and 24th sections, has led to much abuse, and been the cause of 

 inflicting an aggravated degree of injury upon the public; for upon 

 the strength of this, many parties erected weirs after the passing of the 

 Act, in places where they had formerly been prostrated by legal means 

 through the ordinary tribunals of the country, as well as by the public 

 in the assertion of their rights; and great difficulty has been experi- 

 enced in obtaining convictions before magistrates, in such cases, arising 

 from the difficulty of determining the true interpretation of the Act 

 with respect to the definition of the word " established." 



The intention of the Legislature appears clearly to have been to 

 permit only such weirs to exist as had been uninterruptedly enjoyed 

 without dispute, upon a principle of expediency, perhaps, thus recog- 

 nising vested rights enjoyed so long. But the principle of rewarding 

 those who might have persevered from time to time for twenty years, 

 in violating and resisting the law, and in usurpation of the rights of 

 the public, never could have been contemplated; and the law we think 

 should be amended, so as to leave no doubt upon this question, and no 

 difficulty in dealing with it. 



Section 21 provides, that no stake-net shall be placed so as to be inju- 

 rious to Navigation, and empowers the Commissioners to remove them. 

 The Commissioners have not exercised this power; and it maybe very 

 questionable whether it is expedient that they should be invested with 

 it, because, with respect to navigation, the Admiralty have ample 

 powers under the common law, with reference to it. We believe it to 

 be quite undisputed, it imposes a very embarrassing duty upon the 

 Commissioners, quite foreign to the question of Fisheries, and places 

 them, we think, in a false position, the Legislature having imposed this 

 duty upon them ; strictly speaking, they should perform it, and failing 

 to do so, a public department may rest under the imputation of some- 

 thing more than mere neglect, and their having declined to do so in 

 this instance, has created difficulty in some prosecutions at common 

 law before judges of assize ; for it has been pleaded to juries by 

 lawyers that the Commissioners of Fisheries have not considered stake- 

 weirs injurious to navigation, otherwise they would no doubt have 

 administered the law, and performed the duties imposed upon them 

 by the Act, and this plausible assumption has had its effect; while 

 we believe the real cause of the Commissioners of Fisheries declining 

 to act has been, that it would involve the prostration of almost all 

 weirs, and render entirely nugatory the whole provisions of 5 & 6 Vic., 

 purporting to legalize them, in any position almost, within the mouths of 

 harbours, no matter what the breadth of the channel might be. Section 



