§ SIR D. MACFARLANE (Argyll)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate if he has considered the rights conferred upon fishermen under 11 Geo. 3, c. 31; and whether the Government will enforce those rights, which extend to all the coasts of the United Kingdom?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR,&c.) Clackmannan,I am aware of the rights conferred upon fishermen by 11 Geo. 3, c. 31, and the decisions which have been pronounced with reference to that Statute. There have been differences between proprietors and fishermen as to their respective rights, and these have been decided by the Civil Courts in the ordinary way. I do not know of any case in which the intervention of the Government has been required, but if any such case is brought under the notice of the Government it will be duly considered.
§ SIR D. MACFARLANEAre we to understand that the initiative in all these cases must be taken by poor fishermen, and that they must defend the rights conferred upon them by Act of Parliament?
§ * MR. J. B. BALFOURwas understood to say, in reply, that he was not aware that the Government had ever been asked to intervene in these disputes, 240 which were generally as to whether certain coast lands were or were not waste and uncultivated in the sense indicated by the Statute.