65 Appendices to Thirty-eightk Annual Report 



the Sewage Disposal Commission, and the standards of purification which 

 appear to be necessary. I need only say here, therefore, that this, the 

 most difficult factor in the case, has been the subject of very full investi- 

 gation, and that the facts are before us. We are not faced, as yet, by the 

 almost overwhelming state of pollution which appears to exist in England, 

 but the evil is insidiously spreading, and the longer resuscitation of the 

 salmon fisheries is delayed, the more difficult does the problem become. 



District Fishery Boards find it impossible to tackle this question, though 

 all are agreed as to the need. 



In the Tweed district a useful conference on the subject was lately 

 convened. Shortly before the war, Galashiels estabhshed an extensive 

 and satisfactory system of purifying both its sewage and its trade waste, 

 and, through the auspices of the Tweed Commission, representatives of 

 all other towns on the Tweed and its tributaries had an opportunity of 

 first inspecting the complete process of purification at Galashiels, and 

 then of considering together how far the other towns might find it possible 

 to follow this lead. A resolution of a general nature was unanimously 

 passed, and it is hoped that good may result. While those in other 

 polluted districts might wisely follow the example of the Tweed, it seems 

 clear, however, that legislative machinery applicable to the whole of 

 Scotland is necessary before the subject can be comprehensively dealt 

 with. 



Water Power. 



Abstraction of water for the purpose of developing electric power 

 also bulks largely at the present time as a factor which those having the 

 general superintendence of the salmon fisheries will have to consider. 

 Schemes of great magnitude appear to be in preparation, and while it is 

 undoubtedly desirable that nothing should be done to hinder the great 

 work of securing power from water which at present is allowed to run 

 to waste, it is essential that, at the inception of the schemes, and before 

 final plans are adjusted, provision should be made for the conserving of 

 the salmon interests as far as possible. 



NiTH " Fleeting " Case. 



It may be within the recollection of the Board that in the thirty- 

 fourth Report I made special mention of the manner in which, while 

 netting the river Nith below the Dumfries Caul, the net was allowed to 

 hang after being run across the river, and that the shot was not rowed 

 out till after the net had been allowed to drift down the whole length of 

 the long pool below the suspension bridge. 



This hanging of the net across the river, or " fleeting," as the practice 

 has been called locally, is an operation which appeared to me to be clearly 

 contrary to the House of Lords decisions in the cases of Hay v. The Magis- 

 trates of Perth, and The Duke of Atholl v. The Glovers Incorporation of 

 Perth, and in the Annual Report above referred to (p. 98) I quoted the 

 opinions of the Lord Chancellor and Lords Macnaughton, Davey, and 

 Brampton. The Lord Chancellor referred expressly to the opinion of 

 Lord Westbury in the earlier case, which has now come to be regarded 

 as the standard and test by which net and coble fishing may be judged 

 as to the legahty of method — " taking a grasp of a portion of the river 

 during such time only as is required for the boat to row round the shot." 

 The Nith District Fishery Board took the matter into serious consideration, 

 and eventually two proprietors, viz., R. A. Oswald of Auchincruive, and 

 Captain Henry Keswick of Cowhill Tower, took a case to the SherifE 

 Court in Dumfries. The Sheriff-Substitute decided that the pursuers had 



