4. MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII 



13. Finance. — A summary of expenditure and receipts of the 

 Fisheries Department (Statement II) shows a net loss of Es. 19,086 

 as against a net profit of Es. 42,026 in the previous year. The dif- 

 ference is due to a fall by Es. 40,000 in the receipts under ' marine 

 fisheries' and Es. 10,000 in the receipts under 'factories.' There 

 was also a rise of Es. 27,000 iu the expenditure under the head 

 ' supervision and research ' and of Es. 2,200 under ' vessels '. On 

 the other hand there was a fall in the expenditure of Es. 10,000 

 under ' marine fisheries ' and of Es. 7,000 under ' factories.' The 

 increased cost under ' supervision and research ' was due to the larger 

 staff employed including the Marine Assistant and the Marine Biolo- 

 gist. Other variations will be dealt wdth under their respective 

 heads in later paragraphs. 



Coast Section. 



14. Fersonnel — Sir Frederick Nicholson finally handed over 

 charge of the west coast work on 1st February 1920. Mr. Govindan 

 was then placed in charge of the following items of w'ork : — 



(!) the experimental fish-curing yard at Tanur ; 



(2) co-operation ; 



('3) educational, temperance and other socio-economic work; 



(4) fish -oil and guano operations, including the supply of 

 fish-oil to the Board of Munitions ; 



(5) fish-curing yards ; and 



(6) inshore fishing experiments at Madras. 



15. T^anur experimental yard. — The season was poor as regards 

 the supply of the larger kinds of fish, but sardines were plentiful 

 for several weeks and prawns were available in fairly large quanti- 

 ties ; no mackerels were available at all. Altogether 127,476 lb. 

 of fish costing Es. 3,542 were cured and sold for Es. 5,818. In 

 the oil and guano operations 260 tons of sardines costing Es. 2,321 

 were treated and yielded 585 gallons of oil and 44J tons of guano. 

 The sale-proceeds of the oil and guano amounted to Es. 4,568, 

 leaving a stock in hand valued at Es. 6o6. The highest price 

 realized for guano was Es. 115 per ton ex factory, Tauur. The oil 

 and guano operations resulted in a good profit in spite of the fact 

 that the fish were much leaner than in previous years and the per- 

 centage of oil was consequently much less than usual, not amounting 

 even to one per cent. 



16. An experiment in the sharp freezing and chilling of fish was 

 tried, but it was not a commercial success owing to the large quantity 

 of ice required and its exorbitant price Further experiments will 

 however be made with the co-operation of the railway companies 

 with a view to place quantities of cheap fish on the markets in the 

 interior at long distances from the coast. 



