regards French subjects or British subjects, whether within or without the exclusive fishery limits. The Oyster and Mussel Fisheries Orders Confirmation Act, 1869 (No. 2). This Act amends sect. 45 of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868. The Sea Fisheries Act, 1875.-Amending the Sea Fisheries. Act, 1868. The Fisheries (Oyster, Crab and Lobster) Act, 1877.-This Act fixes the close time for the various sorts of oysters and regulates the sale of crabs and lobsters. It also gives power to the Board of Trade to regulate certain oyster and crab and lobster fisheries. The Fisheries Dynamite Act, 1877.-Forbids the use of dynamite or other explosive within a league of the coast. The Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1881, s. 9, enables lobsters or fresh fish of British taking to be imported in British ships without report to the Customs. The Sea Fisheries Act, 1883.-This Act is to carry out the convention as to fishing in the North Sea. It also applies its provisions to all ships within the exclusive fishery limits and to all British ships whenever outside such limits. The Sea Fisheries Act, 1884.-Extends the provisions of Part III. of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, to certain cockle fisheries. The Crown Lands Act, 1885.-This Act relates to the granting of leases on the sea shore by the Board of Trade and the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888.-This Act provides for the creation of sea fishery districts and their supervision by local fisheries committees. The Fisheries Act, 1891.-This Act brings into force the declaration with Belgium as to the conduct of British and Belgian fishermen in the North Sea. It also extends the powers of local fisheries committees, and provides for the constitution of the Stour fishery district. The North Sea Fisheries Act, 1893.-This Act regulates the sale. of intoxicating liquors in the North Sea to sea fishing boats. The Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Regulation Act, 1894.-This Act empowers local fisheries committees to regulate shellfish fishing and fisheries. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.-Part IV. of this Act deals with the registration and discipline of fishing boats. Many other sections also apply to fishing boats. The Acts which are at present in force relating to salmon and freshwater fish are as follows: The Salmon Fishery Act, 1861. The Salmon Acts Amendment Act, 1863.-This Act deals with the export of salmon. The Salmon Fishery Act, 1865.-This Act amended the Salmon. Fishery Act, 1861. It made further provision for the appointment of conservators and for the general management of salmon fisheries. It also provided for the appointment of special commissioners to hold inquiries throughout the kingdom as to the legality of fishing weirs and other modes of fishing with fixed engines. This commission held inquiries, and caused to be removed or altered in conformity with the Salmon Acts those erections which offended. against these Acts. The Salmon Acts Amendment Act, 1870. The Salmon Fishery Act, 1873.-This Act amended the previous Acts relating to salmon by altering the constitution of boards of conservators and by increasing their powers. The Salmon Fishery Act, 1876.-This Act gave power to a board of conservators to make bye-laws for a close season for trout within their district. The Fisheries Dynamite Act, 1877.-This prohibited the use of dynamite or other explosive substance in a public fishery. The Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1878.-This Act provided for the appointment and dissolution of fishery districts in waters frequented by trout and char. It also (inter alia) provided a close season for all kinds of freshwater fish other than pollan, trout, char, and eels. The Salmon Fishery Law Amendment Act, 1879.-This fixed the close season for putts and putchers. The Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1884.-This Act gave power by bye-law to determine the size of mesh of nets used for catching freshwater fish. It also provided for the appointment of conservators for waters frequented by freshwater fish. The Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1886, amended sect. 11 of the Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1878. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1886.-This Act transferred to the Board of Trade the powers and duties of the Home Office. The Fisheries Act, 1891.-Part III. of this Act provides for the formation of the Stour fishery district, and Part IV. explains the powers given by the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts as to legal proceedings for enforcing those Acts. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1892, dealt with the consignment of salmon, trout, and char by carriers. CHAPTER II. REGULATION OF SEA FISHERIES. THE general supervision and control of the fishing and fishing vessels on the high seas, sanctioned by the conventions attached to the Sea Fisheries Acts, 1843-1891, and the North Sea Fisheries Act, 1893, is performed by the Board of Trade and by such other persons as are designated for that purpose in those Acts. The Board of Trade also enforces the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, as to the registration, manning and discipline of boats engaged in the sea fishing service. Within the exclusive fishery limits (a) the Board of Trade is the general authority for the supervision of the fisheries there. By the Sea Fisheries Acts, 1868 and 1884, power is given to the Board of Trade to make orders for the establishment and improvement of several oyster, mussel and cockle fisheries, or to make orders for their maintenance and regulation (aa). They may amend such orders, if necessary, or annul them altogether. The Board may also prohibit, for a period not exceeding one year, the taking of oysters which are not on any bed in a several fishery or regulated by any order made by the Board of Trade. The Board can renew such a prohibition from time to time (b). The right to take crabs and lobsters which are not within a several right of fishery may also be prohibited or restricted by the Board of Trade (c). In 1888 power was given to the Board of Trade by the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, to create fishery districts comprising any part of the sea within which British subjects have the exclusive right of fishing on the coast of England and Wales. In the order creating such districts the Board of Trade provides for the formation of local fisheries committees to regulate the fisheries within such districts. These committees have power to make bye-laws for regulating their districts. These bye-laws have to be approved by the Board of Trade (cc). If the powers of the Sea Fisheries (a) See Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act, 1878. (aa) A list of such orders is set out in Appendix, post. (c) Ibid., s. 10. (cc) These bye-laws are printed in the annual reports of the Inspectors of Sea Fisheries. (Shellfish) Regulation Act, 1894, are used by such committees, the Board of Trade may sanction the expenses thereby incurred. The Board of Trade appoints inspectors to supervise the carrying into effect of the various Fishery Acts, and their reports are annually laid before Parliament (d). The local fisheries committees, which regulate the fisheries within the exclusive fishery limits of the kingdom, are formed by the Board of Trade on the application of a county or borough council to make a sea fisheries district over a part of the sea adjoining the coast of England and Wales, over which British subjects have the exclusive right of fishing (e). If the county or borough councils refuse or neglect to apply for the creation of a district after being requested to do so by not less than twenty inhabitant ratepayers interested in sea fisheries, such persons may apply to the Board of Trade, who can in such a case proceed to form a district, as if the councils had applied for one (ƒ). In the event of the area of the proposed district being within the jurisdiction of salmon conservators or of a harbour authority, the Board of Trade may, if it think fit, confer on such conservators or authority the powers of a local fisheries committee (g). A local fisheries committee consists of a committee of a county or borough council, or, if two or more councils appear to be interested, of a joint committee. In addition to this committee of councillors, there have to be an equal number of members representing the fishing interests of the district, including members representing any board of salmon conservators having jurisdiction in the district. The actual number of members of the fisheries committee is fixed by the Board of Trade in the order creating the district (h). A sea fisheries committee have power within their district to restrict or prohibit, either absolutely or subject to such regulations as may be provided by their bye-laws, any method of fishing for sea fish or the use of any instrument of fishing, or the fishing for or taking of all or any specified kinds of sea fish during any specified period (i), and may determine the size of mesh, form and dimensions of any fishing instrument. They may constitute any district of oyster cultivation for the purposes of sect. 4 of the Fisheries (Oyster, Crab and Lobster) Act, 1877, and may direct that the proviso to (d) Salmon Fishery Act, 1861, s. 32; Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1886, s. 6. (e) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, s. 1. (f) Ibid., s. 1, sub-s. 5. (g) Ibid., sect. 12 (2). A list of these districts is set out in the Appendix, post. (h) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, s. 1, sub-s. 2. (i) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, s. 2; the Fisheries Act, 1891, s. 7. sect. 8 of that Act may not apply, and may repeal or amend any order under sect. 10 of that Act, or under the Sea Fisheries Act, 1884. They have also power to prohibit and regulate the deposit or discharge of any solid or liquid substance detrimental to sea fish or sea fishing, provided it does not affect the power of a sanitary or other local authority to discharge sewage in pursuance of any power given by a general or local Act of Parliament, or by a provisional order confirmed by Parliament (k). They may repeal and amend their own bye-laws, and may enforce the provisions of the Fisheries (Oyster, Crab and Lobster) Act, 1877, and any Act relating to sea fisheries (1). In order to carry into effect the powers conferred on them, they may appoint such officers as they deem expedient, but this is subject to the restrictions and conditions as to expenditure made by the council or councils by whom a local fisheries committee is appointed (m). These restrictions must be made before the officer is appointed (n). If the local fisheries committee contains representatives of more than one council, the restrictions and conditions as to expenditure can only be imposed by the common agreement of all the councils represented on the committee (6). Officers appointed by the local fisheries committee have power to stop and search any vessel or vehicle used in the district in fishing or conveying fish or any substance the deposit of which is prohibited or regulated by bye-law. They may search and examine all instruments used in catching or carrying fish, and seize any sea fish or instrument liable to be forfeited (p). These officers have the powers of a constable, and may, if duly authorised, enter suspected places (q). Besides the powers above set out a local fisheries committee has power to fix the size and condition at which shellfish, which includes all kinds of molluscs and crustaceans, may be removed from a fishery, and the mode of determining such sizes; to compel the re-deposit in specified localities of any shellfish, the removal or possession of which is prohibited by or in pursuance of any Act of Parliament; to enforce the protection of shellfish laid down for breeding purposes and the protection of culch and other material for the reception of spat; and to stock or re-stock any public fishery for shellfish, and for that purpose to incur such expenses as may be sanctioned by the Board of Trade (r). (k) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, ss. 2 (c), 13 (c). (1) The Fisheries Act, 1891, s. 9. (m) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, s. 6. (n) Reg. v. Mayor of Plymouth, [1896] 1 Q. B. 158. (0) Reg. v. North Riding of Yorkshire County Court, [1899] 1 Q. B. 201. (p) Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888, s. 6. (q) Ibid., s. 7. (r) Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Regulation Act, 1894, s. 1. |