MR. HAY MORGAN (Cornwall, Truro)To ask the hon. Member for 1062 South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he is aware that a Special Commission was appointed in 1866 of a judicial character to inquiry into the various fixed engines used in the capture of salmon in the English and Welsh rivers, and into the right of the owners of the fisheries to use the same, and that the said Commissioners held several inquiries for such purposes relating to the River Wye, in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, and Monmouth; and will he say whether any record is in existence of the claims made by the owners of the fisheries on the River Wye to use such engines, and of the judgments arrived at by the Commission; and, if the record is in existence, whether he will grant facilities for persons interested to inspect and take copies of such record.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The Answer to the first part of my hon. friend's Question is in the affirmative. He will probably find the information he requires in a Return (No. 369 of 1872) to an Order of the House of Commons dated 18th March 1872, which contains particulars of all inquiries held by the Commissioners up to the date of the Order and includes certain cases of fisheries in the Wye.