156 



ESTIMATE. 



Two Commissioners of Fisheries, at 600 per annum, each, 1,200 



Four Inspectors for Ireland, at 250 each, to cover travelling 



allowances, 1,000 



Two Clerks in Office at Dublin, at 125 each, .... 250 

 Incidental Expenses, Travelling, Advertising, Educational Pur- 

 poses, Tracts, Models, &c. &c., 1,550 



4,000 



The second section of 5 & 6 Vic., c. 106, contemplates the necessity 

 for, and provides for the appointment of these inspectors, who should be 

 working, practical men, and whose services we think are indispensable, 

 for the purpose of assisting the Commissioners in their administrative 

 duties, of guarding against encroachment upon public rights in the sal- 

 inon fisheries, and of insuring the due regulation of fishing weirs. Their 

 services would also be valuable, and much required, in the regulation 

 of the sea fisheries, and in communicating instruction to those engaged 

 in them. 



J. REDMOND BARRY, ) Inspecting Commissioners 

 W. J. FFENNELL, ] of Irish Fisheries. 

 Office of Public Works, 

 Department of Fisheries, 18th April, 1849. 



IV. 

 EXTRACTS from the REPORT of the INSPECTING COMMISSIONERS 



of FISHERIES. 



THE Inspecting Commissioners of Fisheries, in presenting to the Board 

 the Schedules usually appended to the Annual Report on the Fisheries, 

 beg to submit the following Observations: 



SEA FISHERIES. The information received from the several coast 

 guard districts has been very imperfect and unsatisfactory, and it has 

 been found impossible to procure any returns whatsoever from others ; 

 therefore our department cannot be held responsible for the correctness 

 of that Schedule in the Appendix, which gives " the present state of 

 the registry of fishing vessels on the coast of Ireland." The frequent 

 changes that have taken place in the appointment of inspecting com- 

 manders, the death of others, and the substitution of a system of 

 subdivision of the districts between inspecting lieutenants, have pro- 

 duced great confusion; and until arrangements are made for a new 

 system of registry, the statistics of the coast fisheries never can be 

 accurately ascertained; we have every reason to believe that in numbers, 

 both of boats and men, there is a most deplorable diminution, and the 

 officers who have furnished correct reports all agree in representing the 

 whole coast establishment as reduced to a very low ebb. We feel that 

 the unparalleled destitution which prevails in the maritime districts 

 renders it especially incumbent on us at this moment to suggest every 

 possible means of stimulating the energies of the coast population; and 

 while we fully admit the danger of interfering without incurring a risk 

 of doing as much harm as good, we feel that in the present extremity 

 it is scarcely possible to hope for a re-organization of society without 

 resorting to measures which in ordinary times may be considered 

 exceptionable. The public attention has been greatly attracted lately 



