222 THE FISHER Y LA WS. 



ment for taking fish fixed to the soil, or made stationary 

 in any other way, not being a fishing weir or fishing mill- 

 dam ;" and a still further extension was made in 1873, 

 (s. 4), so as to include floating nets and tackle. 



No fixed engine may be used except such as in 1861, 

 or one of the four preceding seasons, were in lawful use, 

 (that is, were used under a title, by grant or otherwise, which 

 would have afforded a good answer to any objection by 

 neighbouring fishery owners on the ground of interference 

 with their rights.) 1 The prohibition extends to the use of 

 fixed engines as merely auxiliary to the taking of salmon, 

 or for obstructing their passage'. 2 If it is infringed, the 

 engine and any salmon taken are forfeited, and there is a fine 

 which may go up to 10 for every day's use of the illegal 

 instrument. The Fishery Commissioners, while their office 

 existed, had power to determine what fixed, engines should 

 be "privileged" as having been lawfully in use in 1861 or 

 earlier as above mentioned ; on the other hand they were 

 charged with the duty of inquiring into the legality or 

 otherwise of fixed engines, and were empowered to order 

 the removal of illegal ones. 3 Moreover it has been 

 judicially decided that an illegal fixed engine, like any 

 other nuisance, may lawfully be removed by any of the 

 Queen's subjects. Practically no one but a conservator or 

 some one under his orders is likely to do this ; the impor- 

 tant application of the doctrine is to protect (as it did in 

 the case in question) a conservator who, whether by zeal 

 or inadvertence, acts outside his own district. 



Divers other modes of fishing are prohibited with a view 

 to the preservation of salmon and (through the extensions 

 introduced in the later Acts) other freshwater fish also. 



1 1 86 1, s. 11, as amended by 1865, s. 39. * 1873, s. 18. 



3 1865,55.42-45. 



