Wanawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOV. 17, 1891, Caller Herring.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 17 November 1891, Page 2

Wanawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOV. 17, 1891, Caller Herring.

Within the gulf of St Lawrence, which is almost surrounded by Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Bruns. wick, and Quebec, has been found a herring-bank one hundred miles loug. This is a matter of the very greatest interest to Newfoundland, and the wbi'ld at large. It seems strange that the existence of this bank has not been known before, seeing how much Newfoundland and the Labrador are interested in the fishing industry. Last year the export of Cod fish totalled close on £128,000 woith, and about the same value for herrings, there were als<) seal oil, seal skins, and tinned lobsters sent away, also of great value. Newfoundland with its dependencies, is a fishing colony, being at present only settled on the coast-line. It is our oldest off shoot and owing to the careless wording of the Treaty of Utrecht, France has been able to claim privileges it was never intended it) should ha\e, and ' th«wfflr« tfasv*. IWfl bflfi*J thY

frequent troubles between the fishermen of both nations, which we hear reported from time to time.

The herring trade has been one in which great Britain has been interested for a number of years, ass the " statute of herrings " placing tile trade under government control is dated 1357. It is from the North that the herrings come on their annual visit to tho shores of Grent Britain, and therefore immense spawning grounds may yet be undiscovered in the North Seas, The herring makeo his appearance off Cromai'ty early in May, and is fished for off Sutherland irt .Tune, fi.ncl it is not till September that the season sets in for Yarmouth. The fish travel in shoals, miles in length, and fill the seas of North Western Europe at almost regular seasons. More than half a million fish have been taken in one night by a single boat ! About four hundred sloops are employed in this trade at Yarmouth alone. The fish are taken chiefly by means of drift-nets, and are sold fresh when they are first caught from being often too rich for salting. The curing is by two modes, the white and red. For the former they are placed in barrels with salt ; for the latter they are sprinkled. with salt and laid in heaps on a brick floor for six days, they are then washed, and spitted one by one on long wooden rods, which pass through the gills ; the rods are then suspended on ledges, tier above tier, from the top of the house to within eight feet of the ground, a fire is then kindled, and fod with green wood for throe weeks or a month, determined by whether the fish are for Home consumption or export.

The rate of increase of the herring is wonderful, though we are unable to state exactly what it is, hut it is reckoned b"y millions. The Cod annually produces more than nine millions of eggs, and the Sturgeon more than seven millions, and an inspection of the roe of the herring will convince anyone that it cannot he far short of these numbers. The extraordinary masses contained in a shoal was illugtrated about fifty years ago in the harbour of the town of Crail. The water was so fall of herrings that five or six could he taken by one dip of a basket. The public crier was sent through the town to proclaim that ' caller herrin ' that is, herrings fresh out of the sea, might be had at the rate of forty a penny. As the tide rose the fish accumulated and baskets could be tilled in an instant. Tbo crier was . ordered to announce that herrings could be had for a shilling a cart-load. The mass kept on increasing so that the crier had to announce they could be had for nothing. The fish continued increasing on the shore till the tide ebbed, and the mass was so great that the corporation offered a shilling to every one who would remove a cartload away, In Great Britain alone 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of hevrings are cured.