24 



o'Litting prevents the use of more than a fraction of 

 the catches when abundant. 



1 8. Orgaiii%ation of a trade. — The experience of the 

 past year enforces the commonplace that if the industry 

 and trade are to be seriously developed business know- 

 ledge and business organization are necessary prelimi- 

 naries ; good products are useless if on the one hand 

 they are not acceptable or on the other are not known 

 or introduced to the public. 



As regards acceptability , my Personal Assistant, 

 Mr. V. Govindan, made a tour of special enquiry 

 and has obtained valuable first-hand information and 

 facts. He found that existing markets are somewhat 

 particular ; the fish-eaters of Madras City seem to 

 demand moist fish with light salt, and consequently, a 

 certain amount of taint or high flavour ; fish cured as 

 for Colombo, viz., well salted, dry, and absolutely free 

 from such flavour, are not desired ; apparently it is not 

 merely a question of cheap price, but of custom. Not 

 only so but in the Tamil districts of the East Coast 

 most of the fish seems to be consumed when tainted 

 either because of necessity or from preference, more 

 probably the former; a large proportion of the supply 

 is West Coast fish not good enough for Ceylon, or it 

 consists of mackerel and sardines cured absolutely with- 

 out salt and undistinsfuishable — sardines — from the fish 

 dried on the beaches as manure ; the moist fish has 

 little salt and is consequently tainted and maggotty ; the 

 fish of the so-called " Madura cure " is soft and pasty. 

 Much of this is due to the demand for excessive cheap- 

 ness, part to originally defective curing ; the two reasons 

 act and react on one another ; the cheapest goods are 

 required and these can only be supplied of bad quality ; 

 being of bad quality no respectable persons purchase it. 

 As an example, the saltless sardines, containing a mini- 

 mum of nourishment, are kept on the market until they 

 are absolutely unfit for anything except manure ; 

 mackerel bought fresh on the West Coast at Rs. 2 per 

 1,000 are required to be sold at Rs. 3 per 1,000 in South 

 Arcot ; I have been told that Tamil coolies in Ceylon 

 used to filch for food portions of the dried sardines used 

 on the estates as manure, being so similar to the stuff 

 they were accustomed to in India. My Assistant also 

 found that the public was quite unaware that " karuvad " 



