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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 173, 21 July 1876, Page 14

It is officially reported by the French Minister of Marine that the sardine fisheries are gradually diminishing in yield. The reason is not that the fish are becoming scarce, but the supply of bait used—the roe of codfish imported from American fisheries — has been inadequate to meet the demand. It has lately been found however, that grasshoppers, pounded into a paste, imitate the roe so exactly that the most knowing of the sardines cannot distinguish the difference ; and accordingly the French Government has imported large quantities of the insects from Algeria in order to try the new bait on a large scale. This fact of the grass-hoppers being good for fish-bait might be looked into somewhat further here, and it may appear that the insects which yearly ravage our Western country may be turned to good account for catching fish indigenous to our waters.—' N.Y. Tablet/