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Appendices to Thirty-fourth Annual Report 



that the water drawn off into the lade, and constantly allowed to run thus 

 to waste, is not regarded by the District Board as making the obstruction 

 at the dyke more serious than it need be. With regard to this particular 

 matter, I would again refer to the Bye-law (1st Section), where it is stated 

 that " all water not taken into the lade for the use of the mills or other 

 lawful purpose shall be made to flow over the dam as fully as may be 

 practicable " ; and again in Section 2, after providing for the proper provision 

 of sluices, it is stated, "No water shall, with the exception hereinafter 

 stated, be allowed to enter any mill lade beyond the quantity required for 

 the use of the water wheel or wheels of any one fall on that lade, or for 

 other lawful purpose in the lade, that is to say, no water shall be allowed 

 to escape from any lade into the river by means of any byewash or overflow, 

 but all water not required for the uses aforesaid shall be made to flow over 

 the dam into the river as far as may be practicable." 



The Clerk to the Forth Board sent me the plans and specifications of 

 the pass referred to on 23rd April 1915, and after examining these I called 

 his attention to the fact that, apparently, not only was no proper gap secured 

 to the pass, but that the sill of the pass was, for a width of 6 feet in the 

 centre, to be 1 inch above the lowest part of the crest of the dyke, and for 

 a width of 3 feet on each side of this to be 2 inches above. I pointed out 

 that such a pass could not conform to the requirements of the Salmon Acts, 

 and that this most important feature should at once be put right, and that 

 failing this it seemed unnecessary to go into further detail. The intake 

 appears to have been slightly altered, however. 



In reply to this I was informed that the plans had not been submitted 

 to me for any formal approval ; that the Clerk had sent them on his own 

 initiative in case I might have any suggestion to make with a view to the 

 improvement of the pass. 



The suggestion I had already made was certainly for the improvement 

 of the pass, and with the object of bringing it into harmony with the 

 Regulations, yet for some reason or other the suggestion has been virtu- 

 ally disregarded, and the pass erected so as to confer no benefit upon the 

 local fisheries, while securing a maximum of water supply to the opposing 

 interest, which water supply is apparently of no particular use to any one 

 at present. 



