t2 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



three printed editicns ; the first with the Director's detailed 

 explanations is laid before the Fishery Council, the second goes 

 to the Ministry of Commerce and thence to the Budget Committee 

 with the comments of the Fishery Council and the Director's 

 replies; and then finally with the notes curtailed and made as 

 concise as possible, it goes before Parliament. 



III.— CO-OPERATION AND STATE LOANS TO 



FISHERMEN. 



One of my objects in visiting Norway was to ascertain the lines 

 upon which co-operation is organized among the fisherfolk, as I 

 had heard that a new departure had been made there whereby 

 fishing gear might be insured against loss by co-operative means. 

 Hardly could I have gone to a country less advanced in this 

 direction, and before I left the country the reason become plain. 

 The Norwegian, enterprising and adventurous, is because of these 

 very qualities, so self-reliant that he becomes individualistic, a 

 characteristic shared in fully equal degree by his Scots brethren. 

 Because of this, he is averse to the mutual-help associations 

 characteristic of people in whom the Mediterranean stock predomi- 

 nates. Because of his racial origin, the Norwegian is learning 

 very slowly indeed the value of co-operation in the sense we know 

 it in parts of Germany, in Italy and in India. 



In agriculture a good beginning has been made of late years, 

 the example of Denmark being an object lesson not to be despised. 

 The purchase of food-stuffs and of manures has been put largely 

 upon a co-operative basis as in Denmark, and also the disposal of 

 dairy produce. In fisheries the tale, as I have said, is otherwise, 

 and so far as I can find the only societies formed are for the mutual 

 insurance of their boats against loss or damage. The facilities 

 thus afforded are widely taken advantage of, but so far as gear is 

 concerned, the subject I was specially interested in, it appears that 

 only in one or two exceptional cases is there sufificient mutual 

 trust among the fishermen to permit of the insurance societies 

 providing for the insurance of fishing gear. A few of these are 

 now moving in this direction, and when I was in Bergen, the 

 Director of Fisheries kindly gave me a copy of the rules proposed 

 for this i^urpose in one case. These rules are not vet settled 

 between the society and the deixirtment. The reason the latter is 



