The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-03 00:00:00

7'HE YORKSHIRE SALMON FISHERIES.

The annual meetings of the Conservators of the
Wharfe and Derwent boards of these fisheries were
held on Thursday, January 23, at York. J. Meek,
Esq., presided over the meeting of the Wharfe
Board, and Colonel St Quintin over that of the
Derwent Board. The business at each meeting was
precisely the same, J. 11. Phillips, &q., of Beadlain
Grange, Helmsley, opening each by the reading of
the minutes. From these it appeared that a peti-
tion had been prepared for presentation to Parlia-
ment, praying for snore efficient legislation for the
protection of salmon in the rivers of the kingdom.
The petition was adopted. A number of queries
which had been sent down by the Government in
reference to the operations of the boards of the
Wharfe and Derwent districts were then read, as
well as the answers which Mr. Phillips had pre-
pared to them, and the latter Were unanimously
adopted by the meetings. .;
Jlr."Phillips read Lis report. "Owing to the
notices prescribed in the Act of Parliament re-
quiring three mouths' publication, the commence-
ment of the fishing season was retarded until the
Ist of May. The licenses issued on behalf of the
board had realised the sum of £l6l, a revenue
which, bearing in mind that three mouths of the
open season had already elapsed, was considerably
more than was anticipated, and was entirely derived
from draft nets worked in the tidal portions of the
river Ouse. From statistics transmitted to the
secretary by the licencees, and carefully collated,
there appeared to have been caught in the aggregate
3,204 salmon during the season.
iMr. Phillips gathered from various reliable
sources that salmon had not only increased in num-
ber, but likewise iu size and weight, but it was in
vain to look for any great augmentation of fish
until those obstructive weirs were provided with
passes. The north-western part of Yorkshire, with
its numerous diversified valleys and mountain
streams, was strikingly adapted by nature for sal-
mon, yet these prolific sources of food were cut off,
dried up, and destroyed by mill-proprietors for
their own private benefit, and this at an immense
loss to the rest of the community. Mr. Ashworth,
the enterprising owner of the Galway an I Severn
fisheries, stated that "nine-tenths of the salmon-
fishery proprietors of the kingdom are sacrificed for
the benefit of the other tenth, viz., the mill-owning
proprietors, and the nation lose food worth nearly
half a million." In relation to this subject, Mr.
Phillips could not refrain from mentioning that vast
quantities of salmon were seen at the foot of Tad-
caster, even in December last, by the Rev. J. Chal-
loner, Mr. Bradley, and others, jumping and strug-
gling in vain to get over. Application was there-
fore made to the Home Secretary to allow them to
be netted and turned in above the dam. High floods
occurring in the interim, their good intentions were
frustrated. He was, therefore, painfully convinced
these fish had spawned below the dam and re-
turned to sea. The destruction of ova was, there-
fore, beyond calculation. They might only sup-
pose there were 100 pairs of salmon (a very low esti-
mate indeed), and that each hen fish was 10 pounds
in weight, and calculating by the usual mode of a
thousand to each 11b. weight of fish, they had a
loss of one million ova! In addition to these there
were others killed in trying to get up the mill
wheel. Mr. Phillips alluded to the pernicious
system of river pollution, which was increasing, and
would yearly become worse unless some legislative
measures were rigidly enforced. In the neighbour-
hood of Otley and Richmond there were numerous
pollutions, both of fluid and solid kind, discharged
into the rivers from the towns themselves, and from
paper mills, gasworks, mines, woollen manufac-
tories, dye works, tanneries, &c., which fouled the
rivers to a considerable extent ; and York, too, with
its population of 46,000, was not exempt from blame,
as the whole sewage from that city was drained
into the river, and in dry weather was complained
of as a great nuisance. He would next come to
the consideration of fish ladders, of which only one
had been erected in that district, viz., at Linton,
nine miles above the city of York, on the river
Ouse. The weir had been, on several occasions,
surveyed by the late Mr. Ffennell, and various
plans had been suggested as to the best mode of
erecting a ladder, and as to where it was finally
decided that it should be made. Mr. Ffennell
strongly urged the navigation commissioners to
allow it to be olaced in the centre weir, but those
gentlemen having a fear lest a structure of that sort
should in any way interfere with the stability of
the dam, refused their sanction, and pointed out to
Mr. Ffennell the present site by the side of the
navigation sluices, where he might, if he thought
proper, fix the ladder. As there was no alternative,
it was erected there, and it was now ascertained
that Mr. Ffenncll's opinion was in the main cor-
rect —its present position was away from the course
of the river, and the top of it stretched past the
broken water at the foot of the weir, where it was
well known salmon were constantly to be seen
vainly attempting
to overleap the barrier. No:-
withstanding these defects, it was believed that a
great number of fish had ascended it.
The corporation of York had decided to erect a
ladder on the dam at Naburn during the approach-
ing summer; they had directed their surveyor to
obtain plans and specifications of various kinds of

ladders submitted to the council and inspectors of
fisheries for their decision and approval. Whilst
in London attending the Fishery Congress in June
last, he examined a great number of models of lad-
ders that were exhibited on that occasion. Ile
could not say that many of them, were of a very
practical description, such as would admit salmon
over the weirs at all times, and in large quantities.
It occurred to him (and that opinion was shared by
others) that in constricting a fish pass the nearer
they copied nature, and the simpler the means they
used, the more successful would be their efforts.
Many of the ladders as at present constructed re-
sembled, more than anything else, fish traps. In
the month of August last the Special Commis-
sioners for English fisheries visited the first four
weirs on theWharfe, alsothose on the Dement, for
the purpose of inspecting some of the worst cases
pre-
paratory to trying them a few months. hence. From
the circumstance that five of those weirs had fishing
boxes attached to them, they were clearly within
their jurisdiction. These questions of law, regard-
ing dams, reminded them.liow urgently an amended
act was needed not only to give the Special Com-
missioners more extensive powers to deal with all
obstructions to the passage of fish, but also remedy
defects and deficiencies in the Acts of 1861. and
1865. There were also other important alterations
required, viz., to put a stop to the pollution of
rivers—extension of weekly close time—prohibiting
the use of nets within 150 yards of any dam, and
in non-tidal waters during night time. Also to
re-enact the 231 George If. oap. 27, unfortunately
repealed by the Salmon Fishery Act of 1861, which
not only gave powers for the protection of spawn,
fry, or brood of fish, all unsizeable fish and smelts
proper under the size of five inches ; but also all
fish included in the salmonidm family. Had
not this act been repealed the Special Commis-
sioners could have effectually put a stop to all
those mischievous set-nets which commit such
whosesale destruction of fry and other edible fish ;
not only in the Humber, but in various other tidal
rivers throughout the kingdom. In closing the re-
port Mr. Phillips would just advert to the contem-
plated amalgamation of the two districts into one.
The subject had been already discussed at both
boards, and the conservators of each had expressed
their willingness that the fusion should take place.
With that view the usual notices required by the
Act had been given by each board, and at the ex-
piration of six months the sanction of the Home
Secretary only would be necessary to effect the
alteration. The Trent I3oard had also signified
their wish to surrender that portion of their district
bordering on Yorkshire which comprised the natural
half of the estuary of the Humber, extending east-
ward of the Trent Falls to Spurn Point, and th e
ea coast to Flambro' Head. As this would give
the board access to the sea, and likewise a share
and supervision of the estuary, into which nearly all
the rivers of the county were united, he though
the arrangements in many respects would prove an
advantageous one, and each board would then
have the Ilumber as a natural boundary to their
respective districts.
The report was adopted.

THE TWO KEANS.

We know that Garrick and Kemble were, in
their days, at the head of the dramatic profession,
but of their comparative merits we have only the
opinions of critics, which have ever been, and in all
probability will ever be, in favour of the retiring or
retired actor_ According to the feW *ha- reineffilior
both the Beans, the son never had the ability of the
father, no more than the father ever attained the
excellence of John Kemble, in the notion of their
common hearers. If such general preference of
prelecessors b 2 right, artistic skill must be sadly in
decay, and therefore we are justified in withholding
belief front such verdicts. Actors, singers, and
musicians are but exponents of the works of others,
leaving no lasting trace behind of their own excel-
lence. It is the inevitable misfortune of their pro-
fession, and vain, in these days, would be
ail attempts to draw a parallel between the
dramatic excellence of father and son. Such,
however, is not our purpose, but, on the
moral to be derived from their lives, and on the
lesson to be drawn from the dauntless energy of
both, we would rapidly treat.
Edmund Kean, the father, was the son of a scene
carpenter, born in 1787, his mother being the
daughter of George Saville Carey, a dramatic writer,
and gran'daughter of Henry Carey, a more cele-
brated theatrical author and musical composer.
From the low position of his parents, Edmund was
introduced on the stage when quite a child, and at the
young age of thirteen joined a provincial company.
For years he lived and travelled in the background
of the profession, now in England, now in Scotland,
now in Ireland. lie did the general work of the
straggling unknown, in tragedy, opera, farce, and
pantomime ; tutored in all by his own genius only,
and upheld in distress by faith in the result of
his own perseverance. His failures are unrecorded,
forthey were hurried unnoticed in the provinces, and
therefore unlike those of his son, whose performances
were patent to the London public from the first ill
success in the character of Norval to his triumph in
that of Hamlet. The son, Charles, appealed re-
peatedly till he obtained a favourable verdict on
the metropolitan boards. The father, Edmund
I(ean, burst like an unexpected meteor on the thea-
trical public, for his very patrons had but
little faith in his success. lie, indeed, was but a
desperate experiment of a failing management, and
Drury Lane was not half filled to witness his first
representation, which a critic of the period thus de-
scribes:—" There came on a small man, with an
Italian face and fatal eye, harsh of voice, abrupt
and angular in action. But his style was new ;
there was the decision, the inspiration of genius in
his look, tone, and bearing; and the attention of
the audience soon ripened into enthusiasm." It was
the starting post of a great career, and justly might
he exclaim, on his return home that night, " Mary,
our fortune is founded ; you shall have a carriage,
and Charley shall go to Eton !"—Charley being then
three years old. That the programme was not com-
pleted was only due to his dissoluteness and extra-
vagance. Strange to say, however, at the same period
of life, at the comparatively early age of twenty-seven,
father and son became popular tragedians in London,
the one in 1814, the other in 1838, and both through
years of study and perseverance. The father was
literally nursed and educated on the stage; the son
selected it as a mews of support for his discarded
mother. To her theboy clung; for her he abandoned
Eton at the age of sixteen years. The elder Kean
succeeded John Kemble as actor alone, for his low
habits prevented him from acquiring any standing
in society. Not so the younger Kean, for whilst
education fitted him for companionship with the
scholar, his gentlemanly bearing and high moral
conduct, suited him for the best and highest society'
of the land. Enthusiastic in his profession, Charles
Kean soared, as manager, above pecuniary con-
siderations, and placed the works of our great bard
on the stage in a style that far eclipsed the examples
of his worthy predecessor, Macready. Ills Whole
life was indeed one to reverence and to emulate,
not merely for its untiring perseverance, but for
its moral worth as son, husband, and friend ; and
known professionally, as otherwise, to our great
colonies and the kindre I states of America, it is
not England alone will mourn his untimely loss,
but wherever the language of Shakespeare is
spoken.---Rucing Times and Amateur Dramatic
Chronicle.

"We are informed that it is proposed to offer the
post of Financial Member of Council in India to Sit R.
Temple, lately Commissioner of the Central Provinces,
and now Resident at Hyderabad. Sir Richard Temple has
filled various important posts in the Civil Service of India,
and has earned a high reputation. He was also selected
by the late Mr. Wilson-as his assistant in the Financial
Department, and then rendered very great services.