Maturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 405, 11 February 1904, Page 7

Maturalist.

PISHEES OF THE SABDINE. £IC£ CABLE message announced that fjjaflj the eboals of sardines which this SKK J ear deserted the coast of Brittany have made their appearance in the estuary of the Eiver Elbe, on the coast of Holsiein. What the loss of this industry means to the people of Brittany may be gueised. . The people of a country of multifarious industries, upon no single one of which the workers as a whole are dependent, cannot appreciate, says the writer, the abysß of despair into which the Bretons were plunged in consequence of the desertion of their coasts by the sardine. Upon the catching, curing and packing of sardines thousands of Bretons ezißt. Fathers and sons engage in the fishing, while mothers and daughters work at the preparation of the 'catch' for export. The best of years produces a total income upon which an artisan's family could not live for more than four months; when the season proves an absolute blank, as did the last one, starvation is the inevitable result. For weeks the Bretons suffered the pinch of want-without a murmur. They made no parade of their poverty. Then the truth leaked out, and Europe was shocked tG learn that iOO,OOO people were on the brink of starvation. Fifteen thousand families owe their livelihood to the sardine fishing, of whom 35,000 members go out in the boats and 65 000 work at the packing houses or at heme. For the first time since 1831 the fishing last season was practically nil, Four factories that in the previous year packed 28 000 cases of sardines sent out only 300. Another firm which normally exports 10,000.000 fish yearly shipped no more than 2,500.000. Several factories did not open their doors. Each fisherman catches in an average season from 1,000 000 sardines to 1,500, 000; he did not net more than 7000 last season. In 1901 the men of Galvine harvested 42,000000 sardines, rrpresenting £ls 400. No -more than 15.000.000 were taken in 1902, producing £I4OO to be divided among the adult male population. In other words, a fisherman who earned £l4 during 1991 received last season only £1 10a. The female curers who earned £7 in 1901 could only contribute 103 towards keeping their families during the late season. The wages of the fishing" crews aie arranged on a sort of sliding scale The owner of the boat receives about 163 8d for 1000 sardines. He takes half, and the rest is divided among his men, who usually number five. In the best of times a Breton family of six or seven mouths-has to live for twelve months on about £37, but it was a fortunate household whose income last year totalled £l2—£l a month to keep a healthy, hungry family of half a dozen! The good folk ate now at the end of their resources.

The failure of the sardine has, of course, affected the London market. A leading importer says that only one-eighth cf the usual supply has been received. It has been impossible to fulfil contracts in every part of the country. Spain and Portugal also send sardines, but their quality* does not equal that of the French variety. The sardine of Brittany is packed in the finest of olive i, oil, whereas others are often preserved in a kind of ootton seed oil. Not infrequently sprats are disguised as sardines, especially in shops that cater for the poor, A tin containing sixteen or eighteen genuine French' sardines' can be bought for as little as Hd. The sardines caught ia summer are superior to their fellows caught in winter, and they may be identified from the fact that the summer fish has white flesh and the winter fish pink. An expert informed the writer that a French sardine is in prime condition after six months' keeping. . The sardine improves with age—which cannot be said of any other kind of fish. The informant in question averred that he had partaken of sardines over ten years old. They were soft, certainly, and he had to spread them on his bread like bloater paste, but the flavor was excellent.