SALMON FISHERIES (IRELAND) BILL. (Hansard, 9 May 1900)

§ * MR. TOMLINSON (Preston)

said it fell to him to move the Second Reading of this Bill, which was the outcome of the deliberations of a Committee which sat in 1892. The Bill dealt with salmon fisheries in the north of Ireland, but was chiefly connected with the Bann and its tributaries. The difficulty which had to be contended against was that the river and its tributaries were extensively occupied by manufactories, and there being a sufficiently brisk head of water, the motive power was the turbine. The tributaries of the Bann were the spawning grounds for salmon in the North of Ireland, and the difficulty was that the mills for their purposes required, on the one hand, that a good head of water should come to the top of the turbine without interruption, whilst, on the other hand, it was necessary to protect the salmon smolts when passing I down the river from coming into contact with the turbine, and being killed by it. There was no doubt as to the turbine being destructive to young fish, and it was necessary to prevent them becoming entangled in it on the way down the river, and also to keep out the large fish coming up to spawn, and the gratings which were put up for that purpose, being mostly of crossed wire, were very liable to be blocked by the weeds coming down, and they required to be frequently cleansed in order to prevent the flow of water being interrupted. The result very often was that the gratings were drawn up for considerable periods of time, and the young salmon allowed to pass through. The promoters of the Bill desired to do two things: First of all, as far as possible to secure to the manufacturers on the streams their fair rights to 1179 use the water power to carry on their manufactures, and secondly to provide a proper protection for the salmon and to prevent the salmon fisheries being injured. In the course of the evidence before the Committee, it was pointed out that there was a guard or screen much more easily kept clean than the old cross wire grating, which would effectually bar the salmon running down, consisting of wires placed perpendicularly in the water, and which could be easily cleared of the weeds which float down. The object of this Bill was to prevent the breeding grounds for salmon being destroyed, and prevent the grown fish coming up the river becoming entangled in the machinery of the mills.