Foul Rivers Fishermen are much distressed at the increasing foulness
of some of the rivers and brooks that flow into the Thames from the north. Various stretches of a good number have been fished, after being well stocked, by syndicates of fishermen. At first even those reaches which were found entirely empty of trout proved congenial enough. The small fish put into the waters grew at a great pace and though they did not find good breeding grounds, the individuals flourished and gave agreeable sport. More lately even those in which the fish bred as well as flourished, became infected to such an extent that the fish quite refused to grow to any decent size. It is generally supposed that such pollution, which is apparent in many parts of the country, is a result of the decentralisation of factories, which is a movement that every social reformer,
even if he is a fisher, will wish to encourage. The welfare of the workers in rural factories is of much more importance than the amusement of the fisherman. At the same time it is of real national importance, from several points of view, that our streams should be unpolluted ; and some have been so badly polluted that even the hardier of the coarse fish and the freshwater crayfish, which are by nature scavengers, have been killed in large numbers We live in a scientific age ; and there is no reason in the world why any stream should be polluted if proper care is taken and effluents or road surfaces are properly handled.
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