ii 



! 



Ixxiii 



statements for the districts of Vizagapatam, Godaveri, Nellur, Cud- 

 dapah, Kurnal, Canara, and Malabar, and in several districts the 

 whole subject is inadequately attended to. The Board think, that with 

 care, a large prospective income may be relied on from this source, while 

 the taxes and licenses may be kept so low as to be anything but 

 oppressive. 



147. With regard to the districts from which no fishery rents are 

 Circular Orders of Revenue received, it will be necessary to refer, as a 



Board in 1848, as to what reason, to the (jircular Orders of the Board of 

 fisheries were to be let, and what Revenue. On November 27th, 1848, Collect. 



ors were requested " to take measures 1o 



introduce, in future, the system of disposing of village, tank, and channel 

 fisheries on rent, should such a course not have been hitherto adopted." 

 But to the ' Collector of North Arcofc, on receiving his letters of Decem- 

 ber 8th and January 29th, 1849, the Board observed, they " will not 

 press the extension of the renting system in respect to the tank fisheries 

 of North Arcot, but will leave it to the discretion of the Acting Collector 

 to continue the management of that branch of revenue in the manner 

 which appears to him best suited to the circumstances of his district/'* 

 In reply to a letter from the Collector of Guntur, dated January 29th, 

 1849, the Board did " not consider it advisable to revise the practice of 

 renting the tank and channel fisheries in Guntur." The Agent in 

 Kuril al was directed " not to take any measures for renting the fisheries 

 of his district," whilst the Collector of Bellary was " not to make any 

 demand on this head upon fisheries that have not heretofore been subject 

 to tax." Again, in 1862, the following was circulated to all Collectors : 

 ' The Board are decidedly opposed to any extension of the fishery rents, 

 and more especially so where involving in any form the re-imposition of 

 the burden from which the abolition of the moturpha tax relieved the 

 poorer classes." [The Collector of Madras, June 14th, 1869, observed, 

 ' c it appears that some years ago it was ruled by the Secretary of State, 

 .hat the right of fishing was not to be rented out, except where the 

 ractice had been previously in vogue. I have not the Secretary of 

 tate's despatch to refer to, but I suspect that it was really intended to 

 pply only to inland fisheries, such as village tanks, jungle streams, and 

 channels, and was done probably in recognition of the prescriptive rights 

 of the inhabitants to enjoy the fish within their limits without any tax."] 



148. As already observed, the Board objected to a 4-inch mesh 



being introduced; so they were allowed 

 Instructions from Revenue to moc [if y the order, and they considered a 



Board to Collectors respecting i i i /e n n 



fresh-water fisheries. 3-mched mesh sufficiently small as a mini- 



mum, and on December 18th the following 



nstructions were issued to Collectors with reference to fresh-water 

 heries : " Notice should be given that, from the 1st July 1870, the 



ight of fishing in all Government tanks, rivers, and streams having a 

 rennial supply of water will be let by public auction for a period of 

 ree years. Renters will be called to enter into agreements to abide by 

 e general rules for the regulation of fisheries that may be passed by 

 e Board, and to any orders issued by Collectors in reference to special 



ocalities. The use of all nets having meshes less than three inches in 



ircumference (casting nets and prawn nets exccpted) should be prohi- 



