The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-05 00:00:00

E4t stourtritrge 00serbtr.

SATURDAY, APRIL. 5, 1873.

OUR SALMON FISHERIES.

The dearness of food, of which we
have been all complaining, and of
which we are likely to have to com-
plain for a long time to conic, is no
doubt partly owing to our bad man-
agement of the original sources of
supply, and to an excess of free
tra.!e, or in other words the absence
of legal restrictions against indivi-
dual action contrary to the public
benefit. This has certainly been the
case with regard to salmon, which I
at one time was in certain parts of •
the country so plentiful, that it is
said there were clauses in some in-
dentures of apprenticeship that ap- •
prentiees
,were not to be fed on sal-
mon more than twice a week. In-
deed this proviso is known to have
existed in some oethese documents
relating to apprentices bound to
t miles near salmon-producing rivers.
During the last half century, how-
ever, salmon has been gradually be-
coming scarcer and consequently
dearer, mainly owing to two great
causes—the increase of population,
which has been one cause of all food
becoming dearer, and the
,unfair
practices connected with the capture
of salmon in or out of season.

Twelve years ago there were ap-
pointed inspectors of our salmon
fisheries—not before it was time—
and those inspectors have just pro-
duced their twelfth annual report.
This report is of theutmost import.
ance in relation to our food supply, •
and it is produced at a seasonable
time, inasmuch as Parliament will
soon be engaged in legislating on
the preservation of salmon. The
preseht law undoubtedly needs re-
form. It does not work well, inas-
much as its provisions are not of
universal application. Thejrestric-
dons with regard to the duration of
the fishing season and with respect
to the size of the meshes ought to
be adapted to localities, and without
this adaptation to special circum-
stances our law is seriously defec-
tive. Mr. Frank Bueldand, one of
the salmon fishery inspectors, and to
whom we are much indebted for the
attention he has for many years de-
voted, to this and other subjects con-
nected with our food supply, speaks
strongly on this matter; or rather
his facts are strong. He urges that
the special circumstances of parti-
cular rivers should be carefully
studied in legislating again on our
salmon fisheries, and the reasonable-
ness of this argument is beyond
dispute. But we must have an am-
ended Act, the provisions of which
shall not only be reasonable, but
which shall be imperative and rigidly ;
carried out. Defective as our exist-
ing law is, its wholesome provisions
are not fully carried out, and its res-
trictions are disregarded with im-
punity. Salmon fishing without
license and fishing in the close sea- '
son and on the spawning beds are
largely indulged in to the serious
detriment of the public interest.
Mr. Walpole, one of the inspectors,
referring to the Dee, the value of the
salmon fishery of which is some
£6,000 a year, says :—" I was very
glad to learn, on the occasion of a
visit to the Dee last autumn, that
the wet season had had the effect of
distributing the fish a little more
equally throughout the river. For
the first time since 1866, the anglers
have had a fair season, and fish have
been taken frequently, if not con-
stantly, in the upper waters. The
result, no doubt, proves that the
remedy which is really applicable to
the Dee is wet weather; but this cir-
cumstance should not make us shut '
our eyes to other evils. There can
be no question that poaching exists
to a considerable extent in the tide-
way; numbers of men uniformly
fish without a license ; the fisher-
men go on fishing after the com-
mencement of the close season; and
the conservators profess themselves
unable to deal with either evil."
There is another matter intimately
connected with the supply of salmon
t') which it behove; the Legislature
to pay strict attention. We refer to
Ihe pollution of rivers. The des-
truction of fish of numerous kinds
which has thus been caused is im-
niense. The inspectors of salmon
fisheries draw attention to this mat-
Ira. in the report just procured, but
it is evident that the subject is too
vast for them to cope with, but their
recommendations ought tohave their
due weight with our Legislators.
We have now for many years heard
a good deal about the pollution of
rivers, and but little has been done
to remedy this great evil. The in-
crease of our manufaetures is in it-
set r an agreeable subject of contem-
plation, but the development of our
manufacturing industries has had a
serious drawback in the pollution of
our rivers, poisoning and killing our
fish to a serious extent. The evil,
too, is increasing, so that it now be-
comes imperatively necessary that
Ihe Legislature should direct its
attention to the whole subject.

WAGES ARBITRATION IN
THE IRON TRADE.

The great question of wages which
has agitated the iron trade in the
Northof England and Staffordshire,
was on Wednesday settled in the
former district by the arbitration of
Mr. Rupert Kettle, in connection
with the Board of Arbitration.
After two days' deliberation, and
hewing theargumentsonboth sides,
Mr. Kettle decided that all the
claims for extras and allowances be
included in the price to be awarded,
and in connection with disputes at
local works all claims to be with-
drawn on both sides. Relating to
the general wages question, the
award was as follows :—That the
system of a sliding scale, either
upon the former or any other basis,
shall not be again adopted without
the consent of both masters and
operatives. Thus the rate of wages
for puddlers be raised ninepence per
ton from the 31st of March till the
4th of October next, and that all
otherl'ironworkers he paid an ad-
vance of seven and a half per cent.
upon present prices. As the Staf-
fordshire ironmasters offei to be
guided by the decision in the North
of England, it is expected that the
dispute there will be arranged on
the same basis.