It is, of course, clear that the statistics now presented are wholly 

 incomplete and wanting in much that is desirable. This is due 

 simply to the fact that this Department or Bureau, as at present 

 constituted and functioning, is industrial and not statistical ; almost 

 the whole of its duties at present are concerned with developing 

 fisheries on the industrial side and it has no machinery for the 

 collection or collation of statistics. Moreover, it requires but slight 

 thought to show that the collection of statistics and even of facts 

 in this country is very difficult and very different from the same 

 duty in Western countries. 



In Great Britain (excluding Ireland) the Fishery Departments 

 are chiefly statistical and regulative and not industrial (except in 

 the one matter of crown brands for Scotch herring), just because 

 the men engaged in the direct fishing and allied industries not only 

 know their own business and interests most thoroughly but have 

 initiative in the highest possible degree, and are infinitely better 

 acquainted with their own industries and interests than any 

 Government or Board can be. Moreover, in consequence of the 

 fishery organization, the gathering of statistics is a simple matter; 

 the boats are large and chiefly issue, often under the fleet system, 

 from a few large ports, and are owned and run by intelligent 

 businessmen, who moreover know that statistics are gathered not 

 for fiscal but for public purposes. Hence all that has to be done is 

 to appoint an Inspector at each port — in England often a business- 

 man himself — who simply receives from the various owners notes 

 of their catches which he compiles into a daily report ; the fish 

 markets, moreover, are perfectly organized and it is easy to ascer- 

 tain every pound of fish landed. 



Now here in India everything is exactly the opposite. First, our 

 fishing industry is in the most primitive condition quite undeve- 

 loped in any of the modern methods and allied industries, bound by 

 custom and ignorance, and entirely without initiative in new 

 departures ; it is the Government officers only who have a larger 

 knowledge and a certain degree of initiative, and it is, at present, 

 for them to lead the industry and the men, as has been done in the 

 oil and guano development, in canning and various other curing 

 and cultural methods, and as will be done shortly in matters of 

 capture ; this is the raison d'etre, and this only, of the Government 

 Department. Hence we are industrial and not statistical. 



Secondly, the collection of statistics except of almost fixed and 

 of readily visible and ascertainable matters (such as the population, 

 number of boats, etc.) is almost impossible here, and the statistics, 

 if collected, would be of little value and probably misleading, 

 while the collection, costly in itself, would cause the worst suspi- 

 cions among the fisher-folk who have never yet been taxed. 



We have some 1,700 miles of sea coast exclusive of estuaries 

 and indentations, and every mile, so to say, has its fishing 

 village or hamlet with few or many canoes, catamarans, etc., which 

 go out by night or day catching sometimes a few, sometimes a good 

 load, of one fish or another, which they bring to shore and sell off 

 on the beach at once to local purchasers who consume or run the 

 fish inland as soon as possible before it is further decomposed. 

 The fishermen themselves, moreover, have no idea of weights ; they 

 speak generally in terms of baskets or divisions of boats (of greatlv 

 varying local sizes) where fish are abundant or in numbers where 

 the fish are large or few- Moreover, in addition to the boats, there 



