§ MR. FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether section nineteen of "The Salmon Fisheries Act, 1861," which imposes penalties on any—
person who shall buy, sell, or expose for sale, or have in his possession for sale, any salmon between the third day of September and the second day of February following,would apply to the case of a person pri- 378 vately selling or buying a salmon lawfully caught by rod and line between September 1st and November 1st?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, that it would be inconvenient for a Secretary of State to explain what was really the law under particular Acts of Parliament, because no opinion of his could have the slightest legal effect. He was informed, however, on good authority that the 19th section of the Act referred to in the Question of the hon. Member was repealed by the 25th section of the Salmon Fisheries Act of 1873. The law was now regulated by Section 19 of the latter Act, which contained the same provision respecting the dates as the Act of 1861. There was, however, nothing to prevent salmon lawfully caught in the way, and at the time referred to, from being cured and privately sold within the period mentioned in the 19th section. He hoped it would be understood, however, that he was not answerable for this interpretation of the law.