ADMINISTRATION IN ENGLAND 105 



where the fishing rights of a certain area belong 

 exclusively to some person or corporation, in virtue 

 of any local or special Act of Parliament, or of a 

 Royal Charter, or by right of immemorial usage. 

 In such cases the consent of the persons enjoying 

 the exclusive fishing right must be obtained before 

 the by-laws of the committee, in the area adminis- 

 tered by which the fishing occurs, can be enforced. 

 With respect to the matters which may form the 

 subjects of by-laws, there are several curious excep- 

 tions. Thus, shell-fish may be cultivated and 

 fisheries may be stocked, and scientific experiments 

 ancillary to those objects may be made ; but with 

 regard to sea-fishes proper these powers do not 

 exist. Again, a local committee may impose a 

 legal limit on the sizes of shell-fish which may be 

 fished for, but not on those of sea-fish. There 

 is what is apparently a very salutary provision in 

 the Sea-Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888, which 

 enables a committee to take steps to prohibit the 

 discharge of sewage or other matters into the sea, 

 if such substances Should prove detrimental to sea- 

 fish or sea-fishing. Most of the committees have 

 obtained a by-law to this effect, but this provision 

 has turned out to be more ornamental than useful. 

 A saving clause forbids interference in such cases 

 where the sewage, etc., is discharged in virtue of 

 the powers conferred by any local or general Act 

 of Parliament. Now, since the Board of Trade 

 have held that the Public Health Act of 1875 



