§ MR. MACARTNEY (Antrim, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his. attention has been called to the action of the Inspectors of Fisheries in Ireland in prosecuting, under the provisions of the Salmon Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, a large number of millowners in the county Antrim; whether he is aware that very considerable employment is given to the rural population in the County Antrim in mills worked by hydraulic machinery, and that if the requirements of the Inspectors are to be enforced a large number of these mills must necessarily be closed; and whether he will instruct the Inspectors of Fisheries to give the greatest latitude possible in carrying out the exemption clauses of the Fisheries Acts when necessary for the effective working of hydraulic machines?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOE IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)The Inspectors of Irish Fisheries report that the institution of proceedings against millowners for non-compliance with the Fishery Laws rests not with them, but with the Local Boards of Conservators. The Inspectors have in every case in which they have received complaint from a millowner that injury would arise to the working power of his mill by a strict compliance with the law, and in which they have satisfied themselves that the complaint was well founded, granted the necessary exemption, and, so far as the Inspectors are aware, there is no ground for the fear which has been represented to my hon. Friend that any mill will be closed or interfered with in its working through 137 the administration of the law by the Inspectors, whose policy, on the contrary, has always been in no way to injure the effective working power of any mill, be it ever so insignificant.
§ MR. MACARTNEYI beg to give notice that I will call attention to this question.