THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBERS, 1912. THE FISH SUPPLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10713, 4 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBERS, 1912. THE FISH SUPPLY.

If there is one thing in New Zealand more than another that requires Goxerumont consideration, it is the fish | supply. The ■waters in and ;iround I the Dominion are teeming with fish. And yet working men outside the cities are unable to procure this article- of diet with any degree of certainty or at prices to suit their limited means. Even in the cities, lish is regarded as a luxury. Why should this be so? Why should the working classes of the Dominion have to pay through the nose, as it wore, for beef and mutton, when there is an abundance of fish (which is more productive of brain and nerve tissue) at their very doors ? There is reason to think that the operations of those who control the fish supply of the Dominion are a menace to trade. A "ring" is reported to be in existence to keep up the price, and if there should be an over-supply, the surplus fish are destroyed. The trawling operations conducted along thp co;ist have not been highly successful, largely because those engaged in them have not gono about the business in a systematic

way. A suggestion was made in the House the other day Ivy Mr G. M. Thompson, a Government supporter, that the State should outer Into tho industry and supply obo-ip fish to tho masses. We are not, as a rule, sympathetic towards Government interference with private enterprise; hut when it- is clearly shown that tho people, are suffering through tho carelessness or neglect of private firm?, we can conceive the advantages that would accrue through the -State entering into the business in earnest. Wo are convinced thvt tho cost of living might he materially reduced if tho resources of the ocean vo,ro systematically exploited. And for this reason we think that the Government should give tho suggestion of Mr Thompson its earnest consideration. Even the fresh water fish of the Dominion -might bo utilised in supplying tho needs of the people. A ftMV years back the Government was urged to permit the salo of trout from tho Rotorui lakes, which are alive with fish. After much controversy, the Government yielded to tho request, and decided to enter into the itself. Immediately it did so, there was a howl from private firms who desired a monopoly, and tho trade was abandonee!. Why should not tho Government take the- matter in hand again, and extend its operations to the salt water? The cost of living at the present time is almost unbearable. Scores, nay hundreds of families subsist without- animal food at all. And yet our lakes and streams are alive with trout, and our oceans are teeming with fish. Is it not a reproach upon our Legislature that this should be so?