Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I-PRELIMINARY. DEFINITIONS. 1. THIS Act may be cited for all purposes as the Salmon Fishery Act, 1873, and this Act and the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 and 1865, may be cited together as the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 to 1873 2. THIS Act, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof, shall be read as one with the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 and 1865. 3. THIS Act shall not come into operation until the first day of September one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, which date is herein-after referred to as the commencement of this Act. 4. IN the construction of this Act and of the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 and 1865, unless there is something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction, the words and expressions herein-after mentioned shall have respectively the meanings herein-after assigned to them; (that is to say,) Annual close season and "weekly close season" shall mean the annual close season and the weekly close season for all kinds of salmon fishing except by rod and line respectively applicable to and in force in the fishery district or place in which any offence charged shall be committed, and all penalties, forfeitures, proceedings, powers, and things described in the seventeenth, twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second sections of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1861, as applicable to the periods therein specified, or intended to be specified, as the annual and weekly close seasons, shall be deemed to apply to the annual or weekly close seasons, as these may have been or shall be lawfully varied from time to time in each fishery district respectively: "Close season for rods shall mean and include the annual season during which at any particular place it is or shall be unlawful at that place under the provisions of the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 to 1873, to fish for, kill, take, or destroy, or attempt to kill, take, or destroy, any salmon with a single rod and line: the words fishing weir shall mean any erection, structure, or obstruction fixed to the soil either temporarily or permanently across, or partly across, a river or branch of a river, and which is used for the exclusive purpose of catching or facilitating the catching of fish: "Fixed engine" shall include, in addition to the nets, fixed implements, engines, and devices respectively mentioned in the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 and 1865, any net placed or suspended in any inland or tidal waters unattended by the owner or any person duly authorised by the owner to use the same for catching salmon, and all engines, devices, machines, or contrivances, whether floating or otherwise, for placing or suspending such nets or maintaining them in working order or making them stationary: Grating" shall mean and include any device approved by the Secretary of Inspectors" shall mean the inspectors of salmon fisheries appointed under "Inspector:" the provisions of the thirty-first section of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1861: Occupier" shall include any person for the time being in actual possession "Occupier :" of the fisheries and premises in respect of which that word is used, whether such person is owner or not : jack:" "Otter lath or jack" shall mean and include any small boat or vessel, "Otter lath or board, or stick, used for the purpose of running out baits, artificial or otherwise, across any portion of any lake or river, and whether used with a hand line or as auxiliary to a rod and line, or in any other way: "Owner" shall mean and include any person receiving the rents of the "Owner:" property in respect of which that word is used from the occupier, or who would receive the same if such property were let to a tenant : officer:" Returning officer" shall mean the chairman of any board of conservators, "Returning or any person appointed by writing under his hand to conduct the elections of boards of conservators in the manner herein-after prescribed : "Rod and line:" State:" "Rod and line" shall mean single rod and line: "Secretary of State" shall mean one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries "Secretary of of State: "Strokehall or snatch shall mean and include any instrument or device, "Strokehall or whether used with a rod and line or otherwise, for the purpose of foul hooking any fish. snatch." PART II.-FISHERY DISTRICTS. 5. A BOARD of conservators of any fishery district may, after giving three calendar months notice in writing to any other board or boards of conservators affected by such alteration, or, in case there is no board, to the justices of the peace of any county in quarter sessions assembled, the whole or any part of which shall be affected by such alteration, apply to the Secretary of State to enlarge, reduce, or alter the limits of such district, or to combine two or more districts or parts of districts; and, after such notice has been previously advertised for two successive weeks in one or more local newspapers published or circulating within the district or districts affected by such alteration, the Secretary of State may thereupon by his certificate enlarge, reduce, or alter such district either by uniting it with any other district or districts, or combining it with any other part or parts of a district or districts, or by severing any part from such district and forming it into a separate district, or uniting it with any other district, or by adding to such district any place not yet included in any district; and the certificate of the Secretary of State embodying all such alterations shall be granted in accordance with the provisions of the Salmon Fishery Act 1865, and shall transfer and apportion any existing contracts, debts, mortgages, liabilities, and assets among such altered boards. But no alteration of any district shall affect the power of any existing board or boards until the new districts are fully constituted. Power of Secre tary of State to alter districts. 6. WHEN the effect of any such alteration is to include in a district either Combined an additional portion of any county previously included or a portion of a districts. 28 & 29 Vict. c. 121. Notices to be published. Copy of certificate of formation of districts to be evidence. Power to the number of conservators appointed by quarter sessions. county not previously included, the justices of such county in quarter sessions assembled shall add such number of members to the existing board of the district as the Secretary of State shall appoint; and where the effect of such alteration is to exclude altogether from the district any county, the whole of the members of the board appointed by such county shall cease to hold their offices at such board. When the effect of such alteration is to partially exclude from the district any county, the number of members representing that county shall be reduced to such number as the Secretary of State shall appoint, and in case the effect of such alteration is to create the part severed from any district into a new district, or to unite the parts severed from different districts into a new district, then and in either of such cases the provisions of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1865, shall apply as if a new district had been created under the provisions of the fifth section of that Act. 7. A NOTICE of any alteration made in any district or in the constitution of any board of conservators in pursuance of the provisions herein-before contained shall be advertised once in some daily morning London newspaper and at least once a week for four consecutive weeks in some newspaper or newspapers published or circulated within the district or districts affected by such alteration. The production of a copy of a newspaper containing any such advertisement shall be evidence of such advertisement having been given at the time such newspaper bears date. 8. A COPY of the certificate or certificates of the Secretary of State deposited with the clerk of the peace of any county in relation to the formation, enlargement, combination, reduction, or alteration of a fishery district granted in pursuance of the fifth section of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1865, or of this Act, certified or purporting to be certified as a true copy by the clerk of the peace of such county, shall be evidence that all the requisitions contained in the Salmon Fishery Act, 1865, or in this Act, relating to the formation, enlargement, combination, reduction, or alteration of any fishery district have been complied with, and that such district has been duly formed, enlarged, combined, reduced, or altered with the limits and in the manner specified in such certificate or certificates. 9. IT shall be lawful for the Secretary of State, on the application of the justices for any county comprised, or partly comprised, in any fishery district, in quarter sessions assembled, one month's previous notice of such application having been given to the board of conservators affected by such alteration, to alter the number of conservators to be appointed at quarter sessions by the justices for all or any counties or county comprised, or partly comprised, in such district: Provided always, that no such alteration shall be made, unless one month's previous notice has been given of the intention of the Secretary of State to make such alteration, in some newspaper or newspapers circulating within the district; and previous to the expiration of such notice it shall be lawful for any person to represent to the Secretary of State any objection which he may have to such alteration, and the Secretary of State shall, after making such inquiry into such objection as he may think fit, either make such alteration, or not, as he may see fit, and shall cause his final determination to be published in the same newspaper or newspapers in which his intention to make such alteration was originally published. notice of 10. In any fishery district, where any members of a board of conservators Clerk of the are appointed by the justices in quarter sessions of a single county, or of one peace to send or more counties, a notice of the appointment of the members of such board appointment. appointed by such county, or by each of such counties, with the name and address of each member, shall be sent to the clerk or other officer of the board of conservators by the clerk of the peace of such county, or of each of such counties, within fourteen days from the date of such appointment; and any clerk of the peace refusing or neglecting to send such notice shall for every such refusal or neglect be liable to a penalty of not exceeding two pounds. sent to board of 11. WHERE any person is convicted of an offence under the Salmon Fishery Minute of conActs, 1861 to 1873, or under any byelaw made in pursuance of this Act, the viction to be clerk of the justices before whom such person is convicted shall forward a conservators. certificate of such conviction to the clerk of the board of conservators for the fishery district within which such conviction took place within one calendar month from the date of such conviction, and such certificate shall be receivable in evidence in all legal proceedings, and any clerk to any justices neglecting or refusing to forward such certificate to the clerk of the board of conservators, shall for every such refusal or neglect be liable to a penalty of not exceeding two pounds. for the river 12. For the purposes of the Salmon Fishery Acts, 1861 to 1873, the Appointment Commissioners of Supply in Scotland shall have all the privileges and duties of conservators of the justices in quarter sessions in England for the election of boards of Esk. conservators for the river Esk. PART III.-RESTRICTIONS AS TO CERTAIN MODES AND TIMES OF TAKING AND SELLING FISH, the "Malicious 13. THE provisions of the thirty-second section of the Malicious Injuries Extension of to Property Act, so far as they relate to poisoning any water with intent to Injuries Act." kill or destroy fish, shall be extended and apply to salmon rivers, as if the words "or in any salmon river" were inserted in the said section in lieu of the words "private rights of fishery" after the words "noxious material in any "such pond or water." 14. ANY person who shall shoot or work any seine or draft net for salmon in a river across the whole width or more than three fourths of the width thereof, within one hundred yards from the nearest point in the line of shot of any other seine or draft net worked in like manner, and already shot or being worked in such river before such last-mentioned net is fully drawn in and landed, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds. 15. No person, between the first day of January and the twenty-fourth day of June inclusive, shall hang, fix, or use in any salmon river any baskets, nets, traps, or devices for catching eels or the fry of eels, or place in any inland water any device whatsoever to catch or obstruct any fish descending the stream; or shall at any time place upon the apron of any weir any basket, trap, or device for taking fish, except wheels or leaps for taking lamperns between the first day of August and the first day of March; and any person acting in contravention of this section shall incur a penalty not exceeding No draft net to be shot within 100 yards of another until landed. the latter is No eel baskets, between 1st January and 24th day of June. &c. to be fixed Interference with salmon in close seasons. No fishing above or 100 yards below a weir or mill races except with rod and line. two pounds for every day during which he suffers such engines to be fixed or used as aforesaid. But nothing herein contained shall extend to prohibit the use of eel baskets not exceeding in any part ten inches in diameter constructed so as to be fished with bait, and not used at any dam or weir.[^ 16. No person shall, during the annual or weekly close season, in any year, place any obstruction, use any contrivance, or do any act, for the purpose of deterring salmon from passing up a river; and any person acting in contravention of this section shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding five pounds : Provided always, that nothing in this section shall apply to any kind of fishing for fish other than salmon legally practised in any river. 17. No person shall catch or kill, or attempt to catch or kill, except with within 50 yards rod and line, or scare or disturb, or attempt to scare or disturb, any salmon within fifty yards above or one hundred yards below any weir, dam, or artificial obstruction which hinders or retards the passage of salmon, or in any waters under or appurtenant to any mill, or in the head race or tail race of any mill, or in any waste race or pool communicating with such mill race, or in any artificial channel connected with such weir or obstruction; and no person shall fish with rod and line in such a manner, or such a place, near such weir or obstruction, as to wilfully scare or hinder salmon from passing through any fish pass, or over any part of such weir or obstruction usually available to salmon for the purposes of a passage. Any person acting in contravention of this section shall incur a penalty not exceeding five pounds for each offence, and a further penalty not exceeding one pound for every salmon so caught, and shall forfeit all boxes, baskets, nets, rods, implements, or devices used or placed for catching the same; provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to apply to any legal fishing mill dam not having a crib, box, or cruive, or to any fishing box, coop, apparatus, net, or mode of fishing in connexion with and forming part of such weir or obstruction for purposes of fishing: Provided, that where a fish pass approved by the Home Office, in pursuance of the twelfth section of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1861, has been or shall be attached to such weir, dam, or artificial obstruction, this section shall not be enforced in respect of such weir or artificial obstruction until compensation has been made by the conservators of the district to the persons entitled to fish in such waters for such right of fishery, such compensation to be settled in case of dispute in manner in which disputed compensation as to lands is directed to be settled under the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts. Amendments of 24 & 25 Vict. c. 109. and 28 & 29 Vict. c. 121. 18. THE following sections of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1861, and the Salmon Fishery Act, 1865, shall be respectively amended in the following manner; (that is to say,) (1.) The eighth section of the Salmon Fishery Act, 1861, shall be construed as if the words "otter lath or jack, wire, or snare were inserted after the word "any," and as if the words "or killing" were inserted after the word "catching" in the second sub-section, and as if the words " or kill" were inserted after the words "to catch" in the third sub-section : So much of this section as prohibits the taking of elvers or the fry of eels, rep., 39 & 40 Vict. c. 34. s. 1.] |