THE WHALING INDUSTRY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 95, 24 April 1911, Page 3

THE WHALING INDUSTRY.

PROPOSED REVIVAL IX TASMANIA. r Efforts have been made from time to time to revive the Taemanian whaling industry by using modem methods. It was onco the foremost industry of ths port of Hobart, which had a fleet of 40 whaling vessels. Kow a Norwegian company purposes renewing tho whaling trade of the Taemanian coast' under new conditions. Captain L. S. Hasle has arrived in Hobart from Norway, representing the firm of Nelson and Co., of Laryik, to make enquiries. The company it aj large one, with whaling stations in Norway, at three pointe in the territorial waters of the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, and finds th© industry a profitable one. Captain Hade states' that he has had a long and wide experience of the use of eteam power for whaling. The system proposed to be introduced in Tasmania has been in use in Norway for about 25 years. It is a complete revolution upon that of the old_ days. The whales are shot with harpoons from a gun fixed at the. bow of the boat, and captured animals aro towed into port, where a specially-con-structed floating distillery vessel wae moored. Every portion of the whale's carcase is turned into commercial value, including tho manufacture of manure and the preparation of a concentrated food for feeding cattle and pigs, for which the company expects to find a market in Australia. The company is the largest operating in Norway, and as a preliminary etep it is asking the Tasmanian Government- to grant it concessions at two perte — Port Davey, and one ou- the east coast, at a point yet to be fixed. It is acking for the concessions for 20 years, with the right of .renewal, and if it obtains them the company purposes making a etart with two whaling steamers and one distillery vessel.