HC Deb 26 March 1901 vol 91 cc1374-5
MR. M'FADDEN (Donegal, E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if his attention, as President of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction Department, has been drawn to resolutions of the county councils of Londonderry and Donegal, passed at their last quarterly meetings, requesting the Government to take immediate steps to have the fishery laws amended so that flax cultivators will not be compelled as at present to retain the flax water in the dams after the removal of the flax from the steep; and. whether, seeing that flax is extensively grown in said counties, and is a remunerative crop which enables farmers to a great extent to pay their rents, and that the farmers of Ulster unanimously demand the change in the law indicated, he will advise the Government to legislate and remove the restrictions imposed on flax cultivators and the alleged grievances at the hands of fishery conservators.

MR. WYNDHAM

The reply to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. The Department, as at present advised, does not consider it desirable to relax the restrictions provided by law against the discharge of flax water into rivers frequented by salmon and trout.