§ SIR J. JARDINEI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if he can state what arrangements exist for protecting the rights of the Crown against assertions of private or exclusive ownership of the right to fish for salmon and trout in parts of the River Tweed, the River Teviot, the River Jed, and the Liddell Water, and in the streams that flow into those rivers; and whether any public authority has made arrangements for receiving early information of any active assertions of private or exclusive ownership over such fisheries in those waters.
§ MR. SINCLAIRThe Crown rights, which are under the management of the Commissioner of Woods, only extend to salmon and fish of the salmon kind, not to the river trout. As stated in answer to a previous Question, inquiries were instituted some years ago as to the Crown rights to salmon fishings in parts of the Tweed, but the results were not 674 considered at the time such as to justify pursuing the question further, and no special arrangements were therefore required for protecting Crown rights. The matter is now being considered, and if the hon. Member will communicate to the Commissioner of Woods any information he may have as to any apparent infringement of Crown rights, the facts will be inquired into at once.
§ SIR J. JARDINEHas the Commissioner of Woods and Forests any authority to inquire what is going on?
§ MR. SINCLAIRI should prefer that that Question were addressed to the Minister responsible for that Department.