MR. MACKINTOSHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he has observed that a notice has been issued by the Solicitor in Scotland to the Woods and Forests, warning the public that fishing for salmon without a Crown grant is illegal; what is the object of this notice at the present time; and whether it is the fact that rights of salmon fishing can be acquired otherwise than by grant referred to?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. JACKSON,) Leeds, N.The notice in question was published because representation was made to the Commissioners of Woods that a paragraph in the Dundee Advertiser purporting to express the views of the Fishery Board on the subject would otherwise encourage fishermen in the belief that they were entitled to fish for salmon in the sea beyond one mile from the shore. A similar notice was published in 1886. It is not known that salmon fishings can be acquired otherwise than by grant from the Crown.
§ MR. S. WILLIAMSON (Kilmarnock)asked if there had not been a persistent and deliberate misrepresentation of the rights of the fishermen to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and whether the claim of the fishermen with respect to fishing for salmon was not a perfectly legal one?
§ MR. JACKSONOutside they have no rights.
§ MR. WILLIAMSONintimated that he would take an early opportunity of calling attention to the subject.