^5 



(salt fish) could be anythino- but the stufT usually found 

 on the market, and actually considered well cured 

 untainted fish as "not up to the mark " because it had 

 not the accustomed appearance and smell. It is, of 

 course, obvious that men who for ages have accepted 

 and have come to approve of " high " or rotten goods 

 as their only fish supply, will not readily change to 

 other and less highly flavoured products. Neverthe- 

 less Mr. Govindan considers that the mass are ouided 

 largely by cheapness and that if we can supply good pro- 

 ducts at equally cheap or cheaper rates, the market will 

 readily accept them ; this I think is obvious ; the poorer 

 classes will buy in the cheapest market even if the 

 products are good. 



19. But there is a far larger and better market to be 

 considered, viz., the potential market consisting of the 

 immense number of fairly well-to-do persons who would 

 eat fish if it were provided of good quality and appear- 

 ance even at a slightly increased price. For such per- 

 sons I consider that it remains for us to create both the 

 supply and the specific taste ; as in Ceylon good dried 

 fish have taken the place of bad stuff in the better class 

 markets, so we can create a demand for good products 

 by supplying good products whether they be dry or moist, 

 heavily or lightly salted, plain or smoked, and so on ; the 

 prime requisites are good appearance, good natural 

 flavour, wholesome food, and reasonable price. Now I 

 can provide all these requisites with ease ; as shown in 

 paragraph 15 to 17, I can provide fishery products of 

 good and even excellent quality at the most moderate 

 prices, and even for the poorer classes at rates as low as 

 can be desired but without the tainted flavour they seem 

 to need, though I can substitute an excellent and pro- 

 nounced flavour by good salting and smoking. But 

 unless I can put these goods on the market not as casual 

 parcels at irregular intervals and in small quantities but 

 persistently, habitually, visibly, and in bulk so that all 

 may buy, it is impossible to create such market for the 

 new goods, and a main lesson of the past year, from my 

 own experience and, regrettably, that of others, is that 

 it is necessary to take one or two particular localities, 

 open a shop at each such locality and keep it supplied 

 with really good products ; a locality, for instance, such 

 as a large inland town where all social strata are well 



