§ MR. MACFARLANEasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If he will cause to be prepared, and lay upon the Table, a Return of all persons to whom the Crown has at various times granted an exclusive right of angling in estuaries and on the coast of Scotland, the Return to specify the date of such grant, the service for which it was granted, and the revenue, if any, formerly and now paid for such monopoly?
§ MR. COURTNEYThe Question of the hon. Member is not thoroughly understood in the Department. The Crown originally owned all the salmon fishings in Scotland, whether in rivers, estuaries, or sea coast; and, apart from grants made long since, what remains is treated as part of the land revenue, and the dealings with it are reported year by year in the Report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, to which the hon. Member may refer; but those Reports do not in any way relate, as I understand it, to rod fishing, to which the Question of the hon. Member appears to refer.
§ MR. MACFARLANEThe hon. Gentleman says that grants were given a long time ago, and all that remains is now vested in the Crown. What I want to know is the equivalents that were given for these grants, for if the grants are not in existence, the tenants have no right to the fishings.
§ MR. COURTNEYI said they were grants of general rights of fishing, and the rights of fishing are treated as part of the revenues of the Crown; but there are no grants of angling, as I understand it. That is the point of the Question.
§ MR. MACFARLANEThe grants I refer to are exclusive grants. I wish to ask if there are any exclusive grants of fishing by reason of which certain persons exclude the public from these waters?
§ MR. COURTNEYCertainly; there are exclusive grants of fishing; but I pointed out to the hon. Member that that is not the Question on the Paper. It refers to exclusive grants of angling. With respect to the fishing, as I said 1101 before, there were ancient grants made long since for considerations with which we are now very little acquainted. The rest of the fishing is treated as part of the land revenue. Large part of it is let on 10 years' leases to persons who choose to rent it from the Crown; but a good deal has recently been sold to landowners—fishings ex adverso—that being the best means, we think, both in the interest of the Crown and of the public, of treating that revenue; and in these cases the owners have, by grant, the right to the exclusive fishing off their lands. All these sales are reported from year to year in the Report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. It would take a very long time to make out a complete list of the grants sold for Scotland.