HC Deb 07 May 1923 vol 163 cc2089-93

1. With a view to the maintenance, improvement, and development of the salmon fisheries within the area (hereinafter referred to as the "Solway district") defined in Part I of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, the Minister and the Fishery Board for Scotland, acting jointly, may, upon such application as is hereinafter mentioned and subject to the provisions of this Section, make an Order under Part IV of this Act for the constitution of a fishery board, to be called the Solway District Board, representative of the persons interested in the salmon fisheries within the area so defined and in the rivers flowing into such area, and for the regulation by that Board of the salmon fisheries within that area, and on such Order being made and confirmed the provisions of this Act shall, subject to the provisions of this Section and the Order, apply to the Solway district.

2. The provision of Part V of this Act relating to appointed members, representative members, and ex-officio members of a fishery board shall not apply to the constitution of the Solway District Board.

3. An Order made under this Section—

  1. (a) shall not authorise the imposition by the Solway District Board of contributions assessed on several fisheries;
  2. (b) shall not enable the Solway District Board to erect fixed engines; and
  3. (c) shall not (affect any existing private 2090 right of fishing or any existing right to use a stake net or fixed engine) which would have been lawful if the Order had not been made, and shall contain such prohibition or restriction of fishing within a prescribed distance of any such stake net or fixed engine as may be reasonably necessary for the protection of the interests of the persons entitled to use such nets or engines.

4. So much of Part VII of this Act as requires or authorises a fishery board to grant licences shall not apply to the Solway District Board.

Licences granted by a fishery board or district board of any fishery district abutting on the Solway district for use in its district shall be available for use in the Solway district but not so as to confer any right to fish in any place or at any time in or at which the licensee is not likewise entitled to fish or any right to fish within the Solway district in any manner or with any instrument in or with which it is not otherwise lawful to fish therein.

5. Nothwithstanding that licences are not issued by the Solway District Board that board shall have the like powers of limiting by Order the number of licences to be available for fishing in the Solway district as a fishery board has under Part VII of this Act of limiting the number of licences to be issued by the board, and any Order so made by the Solway District Board may, in order to secure such limitation of licences so available, limit the number of licences to be issued by any fishery board of any district abutting on the Solway district.

6. The expenditure incurred by the Solway District Board shall be defrayed out of contributions to be paid by the several fishery boards or district boards of the fishery districts abutting on the Solway district in such proportions and with such remedies for enforcement thereof as may be prescribed by Order made under this Section.

7. Any offences committed in the Solway district against this Act or an Order made under this Section, or any bye-law made thereunder, shall be deemed to have been committed in any place abutting on that district, and may be tried and punished accordingly, but if proceedings are instituted in Scotland they shall be instituted and prosecuted as if the offences were offences under The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868, and the provisions of that Act as to offences shall apply accordingly with the substitution of references to this Act for references to that Act, and of references to the Solway District Board for references to a district board, but so that the penalties imposed by this Act for an offence against this Act shall be substituted for the penalties imposed by The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868.

8. As from such date as may be prescribed by an Order made under this Section, all powers of any fishery board, district board, or other authority constituted for the preservation of salmon, so far as they relate to salmon and salmon fishing, and are exercisable within the Solway district, shall absolutely determine, and the enactments mentioned in Part II. of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, and all bye-laws made thereunder, shall, so far as they relate to salmon and salmon fishing, cease to apply within the Solway district:

Provided that nothing in this section, or in any Order made thereunder, shall affect the powers of any district board with regard to assessments on any existing fisheries within the Solway district or the enactments relating thereto.

9. An application for an Order under this Part of this Act may be made by the fishery board or district board of any district comprising or abutting on any part of the area defined in the Fourth Schedule to this Act.

10. As from such date as may be prescribed by the Order constituting the Solway District Board, the public right of fishing which exists in such part of the Solway district as lies in England shall, subject to the provisions of this Section, extend to such part of that district as lies in Scotland.

11. For the purposes of this Section— The expression "salmon" shall be deemed to include migratory trout; The expression "district board" means a board constituted under the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Acts. 1828 to 1868; The expression "existing" means existing at the date of the making of an Order under this Section.

12. Any expenses incurred by a district board under this Section in respect of any Order or confirming Bill under this Section or in respect of any application for any such Order, shall, whether the application for the Order was made by such board or not, be defrayed in like manner as expenses incurred by such board under the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Acts, 1828 to 1868, and any notice required by Part IV of this Act to be published in the "London Gazette" shall, in the case of an Order made under this Part of this Act, be published also in the "Edinburgh Gazette."—[Sir R. Sanders.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Sir Robert Sanders)

I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."

This Clause provides machinery to settle a controversy which has been going on for a long time. It was no new thing when Joshua Geddes had his nets destroyed by Red Gauntlet and his followers. The Clause enables the Solway to be dealt with by a joint board whenever the English and Scottish people who are interested can come to terms. Until such an agreement is reached the Clause has no effect. I am informed that the Clause is accepted by everyone concerned. I hope that those on each side will before long combine to ask for an order which will set up the Solway District Board, and so settle this ancient trouble.

Dr. CHAPPLE

I do not object to the Clause at all, but I wish later to move an Amendment to it, in substitution for one which is on the Paper in my name. I have had the advantage of consultation with the department, and they have been good enough to make certain suggestions for the improvement of the Amendment I had put on the Paper.

Clause read a Second time.

12 M.

Dr. CHAPPLE

I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed New Clause, in Sub-section (3,c) to leave out the words affect any existing private right of fishing or any existing right to use a stake net or fixed engine, and to insert instead thereof the words" prejudice nor affect any existing private right of fishing or any existing right or title of owners of salmon fishings or the exercise of such rights in any way whether by haaf net, poke net, stake net, fixed engine or otherwise. The object of the Amendment is to conserve existing private rights in salmon fisheries on the North Shore of the Solway. Scotland would be outside the scope of the Bill were it not for this Clause, and as the Amendment becomes necessary for the object I have men- tioned, I understand the Minister is willing to accept this form. The Clause purported, first of all, to be in conformity with the Stafford Howard Report, but the Report recommended that these private rights should be bought out. The Clause makes no such provision so that the purchase of the rights would be optional by the new Fisheries Board. On the question of compensation these rights might be adequately secured in obedience to the well-known rule that no right of private ownership in property of any kind should be invaded or seized or abolished by the State without adequate compensation, but I think it necessary to have this addition.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, added to the Bill.