THE FISH TRADE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 832, 4 October 1870, Page 3

THE FISH TRADE.

[FBOM THB EVENING iPOSX, SEFrEJfcBBE 21.] Strenuous efforts have been made of late by some of our most enlightened public men to awaken a feeUng in fostering local industries of various descriptions, and .doing away with the disgrace of seeing a country iich in almost unnnumbered natural productions, obliged to go abroad to purchase the commonest articles of .daily consumption, and daily use. But while flax, coal, gold, timber, and other products have been repeatedly enlarged upon, a source of wealth almost as prolific as either, and which we possess in a degree excelling our neighbors, has been lightly passed over—the fish with which our seas are swarming. More than two hundred years ago, Sir John Borroughs published a book in entitled " The British Sovereignty of the Seas," in which he says: —" It maketh much to .the ignominy and shame of our English nation, that God and nature, offering to ;us so great a treasure, even at our doors, we do, notwithstanding, neglect the benefit thereof, and by paying money to strangers for fish of our own seas, impoverish ourselves to make them rich." Since that time a great change has come over the British nation in this respect, «nd the fisheries of Britain are now among the most important of her industries. In 1868 their value was stated to be not less than .£5,000,000 sterling. In Scotland, especially in the northern parts, fishing forms the most important employment for the population, and their most productive industry. The herring fishing alone, which only lasts for a few weeks in the autumn, produce enough almost to maintain extensive districts during the rest of the year. An official return of the Scotch herring fishing for 1860 gives the number of herrings cured as 681,193 .barrels. "In the capture of these 12,721 boats were employed, manned by 42,430 men and boys ; the boats, together with the nets, lines, &c, representing a capital of .£750,196"; and the herring fishing is by no means the most important in Scotland; cod and ling fisheries rank higher, and in some of the Northern Islands form almost the sole support of •the population. Around our own coasts there are shoals of fish of perhaps as fine quality, and certainly in as great variety as are to be found in the British seas, and yet no effort is made to pursue their capture in a systematic manner. In many places in New Zealand, where they abound at no great distance, fish are an absolute rarity, and only caught spasmodically with the most detective appliances. In fact we are yet in ignorance as to the number of the different varieties which inhabit our seas. Our fishermen in small boats look for them with line or net in .creeks and bays, never or seldom venturing to the deep sea, where the larger and finer varieties are found ; nor, in fact, do .those who now pursue the avocation possess the means of doing so; and at the same time we are yearly importing large quautities of cured fish, of a description by no means superior to what we could produce ourselves. It is not to be supposed that individual fishermen, with no capital beyond a skiff, a net, and a few fathoms of line, who Jive from hand to mouth, and after catching a score or two of nioki or kawai hawk them round the town jin barrows, will ever develop a source of natural wealth; the industry must be carried on on a large scale by companies, or individuals with means. Fish is not an article of common consumption in this polony; its use is almost entirely confined to a few spots on the coast; but this is simply because it is unattainable. There is a large market to be established for it, both iu a fresh and cured state, in the interior of the country, when means of rapid communication are opened, and then an abundant source of supply for that market is attainable. A contemporary says The f harvest of the seas,' as it has beeu termed, is the pnly one iu which the husbandman is relieved from the preliminary trouble and expense of sowing the seed; he is me ely called on to reap and gather into barns tue produce of a practically unlimited field whjch always lies ready to hjs hand." And we trust to see a staff of reapers in this harvest field before a long time has

To give an idea of the Talue of draught stock in Victoria, the Argus mentions a sale made by Messrs M'Culloch, Campbell & Co., on account of Mr W. Derb.am, of the imported Clydesdale stallion Sir Robert Bruce for the gum of £6OO, the purchaser being Mr 'JTJjoniae Bartlett Jjongford, Tasmania,