56 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[January 28, 1893 
iEotes anil 
A Warning. — We have had repeatedly to warn 
fishing-tackle makers and other advertisers in the 
Fishing Gazette, not to rely upon the statements 
o£ people who order goods and say they are, or 
liave been, connected with the Fishing Gazette. 
Ijet them refer to us, by all means, before 
executing such orders. 
CiiRisTiiAS Number of “Shooting and Fishing.” 
—One of the best Christmas numbers of a peri¬ 
odical devoted to sport we have seen is that of 
Shooting and Fishing, published at Boston, U.S. A. 
It is full of illustrations connected with sport of 
some kind or other, chiefly shooting and fishing. 
One of the pictures represents a Mr. A. C. White 
bowling over a couple of foxes with his shot-gun ; 
he says the nature of the country does not allow 
of any other kind of hunting.- The ilfustrations 
of the American bison, moose, wapiti, &c., are 
very interesting. _ 
Angi.ers who have fished in theBallina district 
and know Fi-ank Hearns, wilt be sorry to hear of 
the great trouble which he and Mrs. Hearns have 
sustained by the death of two of their children. 
;Mrs. Hearns, in a letter to us, says: “ Idy son 
lived only one week after coming here, his Priest 
left him in Dublin, and 1 went there to meet 
him, he was very weak at the time. Hearns is ill 
since his death ; he feels it hard his two oldest and 
best children dead inside six months ; they were 
both very good, and are much regretted here, 
the girl was a great help to her father. . . . 
nothing can cheer or comfort us.” We hope 
Time, the kindly healer of these wounds we 
mortals feel most, will help in this case also. 
We can assure both life, and Mrs. Hearns of the 
very sincere sympathy of all who know them. 
We much regret to learn that Mr. Tayler, the 
greatly respected Hon. Sec. of the Gresham 
Angling Society, has just recently sull'ercd a 
heavy blow by the death of his wife. 
We have received a copy of the rules of the 
Burley Vale Angling Society, which seem to us to 
be very good for the purpose, viz , to make it 
])ossible for the poorest angler in the district to 
join. The secretary is Mr. H. Masterman. of 11, 
Willow-road, Kirkstall-road, Leeds. Mr. M. is a 
manufacturer of every description of anglers’ 
brass-work. 
Mr. B. R. Bambridge, of Eton, says, “Letters 
having been addressed to me by gentlemen who 
are under the impression I am still on the com¬ 
mittee of the AVindsor and Eton Angling 
Preservation Society, I shall esteena it a favour 
it you will kindly give publicity to the fact that 
I resigned some months back.” 
A Sea-Fisiiing Club. —Mr. C. H. Cook (John 
Bickerdyke), the well-known author of several 
works on angling, including sea-fishing, is to 
preside at a meeting to be held at the Swallow 
Assembly Rooms, Swallow-street, Piccadilly, on 
Friday, February 3, at 8 p.m. The object of 
the meeting is to consider the question of form¬ 
ing a sea-fishing club, and the prime mover in 
the matter, Mr. F. C. Aflalo, will read a paper 
entitled “The Sport of Sea-fishing considered in 
connection with the proposed Sea-fishing Club.” 
Mr. Aflalo is an old contributor to the Fishing 
Gazette, as well as author of books on sea-fishing, 
and his efforts to establish this club have our 
good wishes. The meeting is called by Mr. E. S. 
Shrubsole and Mr. F. G. Aflalo. 
The New Th.ames Bye-laws. —(From The 
CounS'y Gentlemany.^lt is difficult to see what 
good purpose the Thames Conservators seek to 
servo by their proposed new Thames fishery 
laws. We do not wonder that the various 
Angling Societies and Fishery Preservation 
Associations are up in arms against them. The 
Thames fisheries have for many yeqrs begn pre¬ 
served, stocked with trout and other fish, and 
placed under careful protection and supervision 
by means of funds raised by voluntary contribu¬ 
tions. The proposal to allow the use of nets of 
smaller mesh than are now legal, and to dispense 
with the licenses which persons claiming a right 
of private fishing have to take out under the 
existing bye-laws, would go a long way towards 
undoing the good -work which the anglers’ and 
other associations have done. The Henley-on- 
Thames District Fishery Preservation Associa¬ 
tion have good reasons for their belief that the 
proposed alterations in the bye-laws would lead 
in time to an immense amount of netting being 
carried on by millers and persons some of whom 
])Ossess only a few yards of river frontage, and 
that the advantages to the riparian owners 
generally would be nil, while the value of their 
fishery rights would be seriously affected in 
consequence. By reducing the size of the 
meshes, abolishing the netting licences of 
riparian owners, and making other changes we 
need not now specify, it is feared that the pro¬ 
moters of the new legislation wmuld begin by 
greatly increasing the difticuTies of fish-culture, 
and would end by ruining the Thames Fisheries 
altogether. We may observe that in removing 
netting restrictions the conservators would bo 
going counter to the most ancient traditions of 
the JMetropolitan river. Regulations as to the 
use of nets in the Thames are still extant in the 
Norman-French dialect, dating back to the time 
of Richard II., ad. 1388. They provided that 
“ no person shall fish on the Thames ivith any 
net called a pursnet (a net with a ‘purse’con¬ 
taining a stone for sinking purposes) on pain of 
forfeiture of such net, and ot paying half a mark 
to the Chamber.” The “pursnet ” may not be the 
bogey that it was in the days of the Plantigenets, 
though it has a surviving congener in the “ cod- 
net,” but its prohibition indicates the stream 
of a tendency that has worked for piscatorial 
righteousness from those far-off times to these. 
There is all the more reason for listening to the 
protests of the experts who, no doubt primarily 
in the interest of their own sport, are striving to 
maintain and increase the finny population of our 
grand old river, because our Government, unlike 
that of the TTnited States, do little or nothing 
for the cause of aquaculture themselves. The 
American Fishery Commis.«ioners are constantly 
making scientific investigations into the habits, 
food, and geographical distribution of fishes, and 
into the temperature of the seas and rivor.s in 
which they live and spawn. Nor do they omit to 
reduce their theories to practice, sometimes with 
the happiest results. For instance, they have 
restocked the Sacramento and its tributaries so 
effectually as to cause an annual increase for the 
last few years of 5,000,0001b. If our Government 
decline to help, they might at least refuse to 
hinder the private propagators of sporting and 
other fish, and it is to be hoped that the 
Legislature will not sanction the dangerous 
new departure contemplated by the Thames 
Conservators. 
PROVINCIAL 
ANGLING ASSOCIATION. 
Established October 2D, 1887. 
(Copy of a circular sent to secretaries of clubs.) 
Important Notice. 
Gentlemen, —The above association desires it 
to be generally known that arrangements have 
been made between the London and North- 
AVestern and Great AVestern Railway Companies, 
whereby the Provincial Angling Association is to 
be the only recognised angling association outside 
London, and that only its members can enjoy the 
concessions and privileges granted by the before- 
mentioned companies to travel at the reduced 
fares to certain stations for fishing purposes. 
They have also given the association full power 
to extend the concessions and privileges. 
AVith this in view it should be distinctly under¬ 
stood that any applications for cheap fares from 
the above-mentioned companies must be made 
through the agency of the Provincial Angling 
Association, as the companies have decided to 
acknowledge one centre only, which is held 
responsible for the safe keeping and regulating 
of the concessions and privileges. 
Any association wishing to participate in the 
privileges must apply to become affiliated to the 
above body, and, if after being visited, is found 
properly constituted on ionafide lines, the applica¬ 
tion ivould be placed before the committee in due 
course, and, if accepted, the general secretary 
would forward to the headquarters in London a 
list of stations that the association desired to 
travel from and to. All associations making 
application for affiliation, and who wish to be 
visited, must pay the railway fares of one or 
more of the visiting committee from Birmingham, 
together with 5,s. each for expenses. 
The entrance fee to the association is one 
guinea for single associations, but where there is 
a large association, composed of a number of 
societies, the committee will decide upon what 
entrance fee shall be charged. The subscription 
is 4d. per annum, payable in two half-yearly 
instalments of 2d. per member in March and 
September. A special travelling card and 
quarterly adhesive stamp is provided by the 
association for each branch association. This 
special card and stamp is the only one acknow¬ 
ledged by the railway companies. 
The association committee meetings are mov¬ 
able, and are held in the various towns where 
branch societies exist, but the annual and all 
general meetings are held at Birmingham, when 
representatives of all affiliated associations are 
required to attend. 
A balance-sheet is printed annually, together 
with the whole of the minutes passed at the com¬ 
mittee and general meetings, copies of which 
are forw'arded to all branch societies. The con¬ 
stitution of the association is at present about 
5000 members, and includes in its wide area Bir¬ 
mingham, Bristol, AVorcester, Cardiff, AVest 
Bromwich, Kidderminster, Malvern, Dudley, 
Liverpool, and Gloucester. 
Our rules and bye-laws are very comprehensive, 
and are framed for the mutual protection of the 
members, and we wish it to be understood that 
the association rules do not in any way interfere 
with the inner workings of any association, as by 
so doing it would help to retard our social pros¬ 
perity, but the association claims the right to 
control all questions relating to the rail way conces¬ 
sion. These particular rules we require to be 
strictly adhered to, and any violation of the 
same by .any branch association will be severely 
dealt with. The rules referred to anply generally 
to the trafficking with the privilege ticket. 
The association interests itself in the protection 
of public fisheries, and is represented on the 
various conservancy boards, and the interests of 
the members are looked after in more ways than 
that of securing cheap travelling. 
An annual contest is held at a place, suitable 
for the representatives from each club belonging 
to the association to take part in, for prizesgiveu 
by the association and gentlemen who are 
interested in the welfare of its members. 
There is a great future for our associa*'ion, 
apart from its importance as the dispensers of 
valuable privileges. It seeks to inculcate and 
strengthen the principles of the true angler, and 
to protect him as far as possible in every sense pf 
the word. It is in this that our united action 
carries us through in all matters that we under¬ 
take, as all clubs remaining isolated are powerless 
to do that which a great and united body like tho 
Provincial Angling Association can command. 
AVe hope that this circular will be placed before 
your membef’s, and we hope to receive a reply. 
Any further informatio.a you may require the 
general secretary will only be too pleased to give, 
with a view of your association becomingaffiliated. 
AVe remain, yours respectfully, 
T. Coles, President. 
C. AVhite, General Secretary. 
42, Tenby St. North, Birmingham, 
January, 1893. 
A SAD accident occurred recently to Mr. Percy 
AVilson. a son of Sir Spencer AA''^ilson, cf Searler, 
near Flotching. By some means the young 
officer fell through a skylight, severing several 
tendons and arteries. It has been found necessary 
to have the arm amputated. Great sympathy is 
felt in the neighbourhood. Sir Spencer AVilson 
is well known among anglers on the Ouse for his 
efforts to stock the river with both salmon and 
trout, and the hatchery at Fietching Mill Pool 
has been a great source of interest to piscatorials. 
—G. AV. 
