MR. MCDONALD CAMERON (Wick, &c.)asked the Lord Advocate, Whether it is true that the British Fishery Society has appropriated, for agricultural purposes, certain lands in the neighbourhood of Pulteneytown, Wick, which at one time were used by the fishermen for drying and mending their nets?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. H. A. MACDONALD) (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities)I have not as yet ascertained how the facts stand; but I may inform the hon. Member that fishermen who dry and mend their nets on waste lands free of charge under the Act 2 Geo. III., c. 31, do not thereby acquire any right to prevent land capable of cultivation from being utilized. The Act only gives them a privilege of free use of land which happens to be in a condition of waste.