155 



during the coming year, I hope to be able to effect a beginning 

 with the aid of the local Roman Catholic parish priest who promises 

 his aid and is keen upon the betterment of this section of his 

 parishioners. The chief difficulty in introducing the co-operative 

 credit system among fishermen is their lack of landed property ; in the 

 case named, the men have small holdings and this I count upon to 

 help on the scheme. 



37. Advances for the purchase of boats. — During the past year a 

 number of divers, who wished to be rendered independent of their old 

 Sammattis by possessing boats of their own, were assisted by money 

 contributions. The sums advanced were restricted to amounts not 

 exceeding two-thirds of the value of the boats purchased ; to prevent 

 loss and fraud the latter have been formally transferred to the Superin- 

 tendent of Pearl and Chank Fisheries as acting for Government and 

 registered in his name. In all, five boats were purchased in this way 

 and I am glad to report that the monthly instalments due thereon 

 have generally been satisfactorily met. In one case, the whole 

 amount advanced has already been refunded. The interest charged 

 is 6^ per cent per annum. This assistance has been greatly 

 appreciated and many applications have had to be refused as Govern- 

 ment do not see their way at present to extend the system to men who 

 are not actually engaged in the Government Chank Fisheries. Were 

 the system extended to net fishermen, I consider that a great stimulus 

 to the fishing industry would result and I hope that means may yet 

 be found to overcome the difficulties which Government see to such 

 extension. 



38. Chank fishery panchayats. — During the course of the chank 

 fishing season irregularities and disputes occur from time to time. As 

 these are usually intricate and involve local customs with which the 

 Superintendent of Pearl and Chank Fisheries cannot hope to be an 

 coiirant, I induced last year both the Rameswaram and Tuticorin 

 divers to institute a panchayat or council of elders, to decide such 

 matters and to make rules for the sanitation of the fishery camps. The 

 results exceeded my expectations and the verdicts were duly accepted 

 by the parties concerned. 



39. Educational work. — This section of work has had little opportu- 

 nity for expression during the past year and there can be little hope of 

 any increase of such usefulness till a central headquarters for the 

 department be provided in Madras. Something however has been 

 achieved, as the following paragraphs will show. 



40. The Madras Exhibition, 1915 -16. — For the Fisheries Exhibit, 

 the Marine section prepared and provided a large number of items, 

 inclusive of water colour sketches of local fishes painted from life, 

 photographs of fishery methods, models of boats, nets and fish-sluices, 

 a collection of chanks illustrative of the different trade varieties and 

 local races, collections of chank bangles, etc. A large series of 

 biological preparations suitable for teaching purposes in colleges 

 were also exhibited ; these included type collections of {a) the edible 

 crabs of Madras, {b) typical Brachyura (crabs) of the Presidency, {c) 

 Madras crawfishes, {d) Mollusca of Madras. Edible shellfish and 

 those used in lime-making were also shown. For the excellence of 



