162 



ing the funds to be derived from the sale of licences, we are not in a 

 position yet to be able to state much connected with its working. 

 From a few districts considerable funds have been returned already, 

 and we hope that in several others the results by the end of the fishing 

 season, will be to a great extent satisfactory, while in some we fear 

 they will be inadequate for the object required ; however, the prin- 

 ciple of assessment having been long advocated and urged upon the 

 Commissioners by many persons generally throughout Ireland, con- 

 nected with salmon fisheries, we have no doubt that its adoption was 

 expedient, and that it will ultimately be productive of substantial 

 good. We have used our best exertions up to this time to render the 

 Act effective by carrying out, as far as lay in our power, the duties 

 devolving upon us in arranging and guiding the machinery required 

 to bring it into operation, before placing it under the control and 

 management of local boards, who are to be called into existence in 

 July next, and shall continue to do so until that period arrives when 

 the Act provides that its administration shall be placed in their hands, 

 and we annex a copy of the arrangement of districts which we have 

 made, with a schedule of rates fixed for this year, which has been 

 widely circulated and published in the newspapers, conformably with 

 the terms of the Act. 



Upon application being made to the Executive Government to afford 

 the aid of the constabulary in enforcing the payment of licenced rates, 

 it was granted, and the inspector-general of that force has promptly 

 acted, by issuing circulars to those under his command to attend to it; 

 and we beg here to state that in all matters connected with the duties 

 of the constabulary, as regards the enforcement of the fishery laws, we 

 have found Sir Duncan M'Gregor most cordial in his co-operation, 

 whenever we have found it necessary to seek his aid or confer with 

 him on the subject. 



ILLEGAL STAKE WEIRS. We regret to be obliged to state that not- 

 withstanding the frequent convictions in the superior courts of persons 

 for erecting illegal weirs in the estuary of the harbour of Waterford, 

 many have still persevered in doing so, and the Board being fully in 

 possession of the facts connected with this subject, it may be only 

 necessary for us to suggest that it appears requisite for the preserva- 

 tion of the peace of the country, and the protection of the rights of the 

 public, that more direct and summary powers should be afforded by the 

 Legislature than those which exist at present for the suppression of 

 such a system of defiance to the law as has been pursued in this locality, 

 which we are convinced has produced in a moral point of view a very 

 bad effect upon the public mind, particularly as regards the humbler 



f We feel it our duty also to call the attention of the Board to the 

 subject of stake weirs in other localities, where, although the same 

 degree of excitement may not have arisen, as in the neighbourhood of 

 Waterford, still the law is not obeyed, and great abuses exist, and in 

 some instances the draft-net fishermen have assembled and prostrated 

 them. 



In the river Blackwater, in the county of Waterford, there are many 

 stake weirs illegally erected, and also in the Shannon. Some of those 

 are placed where the channel is less than the breadth required by the 



