Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1945

Restriction on number of certain fishing licences.

23.—(1) Whenever the Board acquires a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act, the Minister for Agriculture may by order, if he so thinks proper, do the following things, that is to say:—

(a) prescribe the maximum number of licences for fishing with drift nets in the tidal waters (within the meaning of the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944) of the river in which such fishery or fishing right is situate which may be issued in any year in which the open season for such fishing begins after the date of such order;

(b) prescribe the maximum number of licences for fishing with draft nets or seines in the said tidal waters which may be issued in any year in which the open season for such fishing begins after the date of such order;

(c) make regulations in relation to the issue of such licences as are mentioned in either of the foregoing paragraphs of this subsection with a view to securing to persons who held such drift net licences or draft net or seine licences (as the case may be) in the year before the date of such order a preferential right to purchase such drift net licences or draft net or seine licences (as the case may be) before the commencement of any open season for fishing under such licences in respect of which the number of such licences is limited by such order.

(2) Whenever the Minister for Agriculture makes under this section an order prescribing the maximum number of licences of any particular kind which may be issued in respect of the tidal waters of any particular river in any particular open season, the number of such licences issued in respect of such tidal waters in any such open season shall not exceed the maximum number so prescribed.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as in any way affecting the powers of the Minister for Agriculture to make orders or bye-laws under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944.

(4) Where a person is convicted of an offence under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, or this Act, such person shall not be entitled to any preferential right to obtain a licence under this section.