SECOND READING. (Hansard, 22 July 1878)

THE EARL OF MORLEY,

in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, explained that several sections had 2037 been engrafted on the original measure by the Committee of the House of Commons. By Clause 2, it was provided that the Act, so far as was consistent with the tenour thereof, should be read as one with the Salmon Fishery Acts of 1861 and 1876; whilst Clause 5 directed that sections 8 and 9 of those Acts—which relate to fishing with light spears and other prohibitive instruments, and to using roe as a bait—should apply to trout and char in all waters within the limits of the present Bill, one of the objects of which was to make a close time for the selling, in addition to that for the catching, of trout. The 11th and principal clause referred to fresh-water fish, more generally known, as "white" or "coarse" fish. With the exception of those in Norfolk and Suffolk—which counties last year obtained local Acts of their own, and of the Thames, where the fishing was controlled by the Conservancy Board—the rivers of the country were entirely without any kind of protection for that sort of fish; and he thought it was hard upon the poorer classes, who were chiefly concerned in the preservation of freshwater fish, that their fish should not come in for some of that maternal care which Government had lavished upon the birds of the air and the creatures of the earth. Their Lordships would probably be surprised to learn the enormous interest taken in the kind of sport afforded by coarse fish. It was stated, in evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, that there were no less than 80 fishing societies, comprising 50,000 members, in existence. At Sheffield, there were 8,000 members enrolled; in Birmingham, 3,000; and similar numbers in the great manufacturing centres. To his mind, it was of great importance that the people working in close shops and factories during the day, and sleeping in small or crowded rooms at night, should have afforded them the opportunity of indulging in a harmless and an invigorating sport on the banks of the rivers in their several localities. There was, too, a market for this kind of fish—it might not at present be a very large one, but still there was a market—and to that extent the sport, which it was now designed to protect, added to the food supply of the nation. It was generally considered by the Select Committee, that the fairest period at which 2038 a close time could be fixed for freshwater fish, was that from the 15th March to the 15th June, and accordingly that period had been adopted in the Bill. There were four exceptions under the 11th clause. Sub-section 3 was not to apply to the owners of any "several fishery" where trout, char, or grayling were specially preserved, destroying within such fishery any freshwater fish other than grayling; to any person angling in any "several fishery" with the leave of the owner of such fishery, or in any public fishery under the jurisdiction of a Board of Conservators with the leave of the said Board; to any person taking freshwater fish for scientific purposes; or to any person taking freshwater fish for use as bait. The 4th sub-section provided that any person catching or selling freshwater fish during the close season should be liable to a fine not exceeding 40s., and on a second conviction to a fine not exceeding £5. The Bill did not apply to Norfolk and Suffolk.