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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7241, 23 August 1902, Page 2

The Fisheries Conservation Bill has passed its second reading in tho Legislative Council, and will, in due course, appear in the House of Representatives. We trust that in the people's chamber there will be found Members broadminded enough to sec the essential point at issue, rather than the minor points oi fishing rights aud fishing wrongs. The rivers of this Colony are now stocked with trout, and, with fair fishing, the supply is practically inexhaustible. During the process of stocking, tho people of the Colony have been virtually shut off from the rivers, and debarred from eating trout. Has not the time now arrived, when tho trout in our rivers should be regarded as a food supply of the people of the Colony, rather than as the pastime of a limited number of well-to-do sportsmen ? The Government are taking the view that our rivers and all that is in them, should be car-marked for "sport;" but is this view consistent with tho regard which they profess for tho people of the Colony. We have been told that this journal is almost the only pure Conservative organ left in the Colony ; but we aro essentially liberal, and oppose tho rank conservatism of a .Ministry which denies to tho people a food supply to which they havo a natural right.