TOO MUCH FISH FOOD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9545, 17 July 1909, Page 7

TOO MUCH FISH FOOD.

NEW ZEALAND'S WASTE. AN UNDEVELOPED ASSET. "Our Sea Fisheries" formed the subject of an interesting address by Mr G. M. Thomson, M.P. for Dun - edin North, at Christchurch the other evening. In opening. Mr Thomson said that the sea fisheries of New Zealand were one of the most valuable assets this country possessed, although that fact was not thoroughly realised yet. It was an asset which had hardly been touched yet, and, in fact, the supply of fresh fish in New Zealand was something that we as a people had reaacn to be ashamed of. Anywhere in New Zealand it would be found that fish w#s a luxury, but that should not be so — for we possessed in our fisheries an extraordinary source of wealth and a valuable food for the community. The coast line of New Zealand, continued Mr Thomson, was something like 5,300 miles, but fishing generally was confined within the 100-fathom line. We did not possess around this country the great banks of comparatively shallow water which provided the great fishing areas in the Northern Hemisphere, but we had, nevertheless, a very large fishing area. In the Northern Hemisphere fishing was carried or successfully as far as the 100-fathom, line, but experience had shown that in the New Zealand waters it did not pay to go beyond the 30-fathom line, although down off Otago the fishermen were working in 60 fathoms to get the groper and hapuka.

There were between 40 and 50 species of New Zealand fish suitable fur food, added Mr Thomson, but as a general rule there were two dozen common throughout the country, the rest being more or less local. The 40 or 50 species constituted the whole of the fish supply. Of the molusca only the oyster was used for food, and of crustacea practically only crayfish: In other parts of the world it would be found that fish that we did not use at all constituted very valuable articleS of food, and other marine animal'?, not fish, were also largely used. People in this country | seemed the skr.ta,' which was a very , valuable fuoa The trouble was that we had too much fish food, and we wasted it most abominably, whereas in other par's of W r -!(! .what we wasted Would be considered most valuable. Many species of fish we did not value at all, and at th<2 present time contented ourselves with a few of ths commoner fish ahd those m.fi easily caught. There was a habit on the part cf our fishermen, and a most abominable habit, of selling fish only at a certain price, and if that was not forthcoming of throwing the fish overboard. He would be inclined to penalise heavily a man who would do that sort of thing. He felt himself it was a vile thing to do, and he felt further that if the fish market were made an open affair, and people allowed to buy at whatever price the fishermen could get, the trade in the long run would be bene fited, and it would be the better both for the fishermen and for the community at large. In connection with the trawling also much waste went on, said the lecturer. He had been on board a trawler when two tons of red cod were caught, and the fish were simply dropped overboard again. That was not good fishing, and there should he some method by which everything taken on board should be broug:ht in and utilised, and he took it the day wa.s not far distant when every kind of fiab would b*j collected and utilised. Those that could be used for .food would bs sold for that purpose, and these that could not would be made use of either for their oil or for manure, and the phosphate taken out of the land could then be returned to it.