128 



and 290^.* F with the aid of a single olass mirror. The 

 stoving' is excellently done, the heat cannot rise too high 

 (300° F. is the maximum permissible for soldered tins), 

 and costs absolutely nothing. For all mere oven or 

 baking (or cooking) purposes this is a very efficient and 

 cheap application of sun heat available in many occupa- 

 tions and industries ; it is useless for evaporation but 

 will be used, with the necessary adaptations now being- 

 devised, for supplying hot water at boiling point and 

 perhaps low pressure steam ; this will be most useful in 

 various cannery, oil and guano, and soap-making opera- 

 tions. With mirrors far greater heat can of course be 

 obtained. The subject is being pursued as giving an 

 almost costless source of baking" or stovinoT heat, but tiie 

 West Coast is the wrong locality for experiment owing 

 to a long south-west monsoon, frequent cloud, and a 

 moist atmosphere which muffles or absorbs and, to that 

 extent, lowers direct heat. 



15. Cannery shortage. — The abovementioned short- 

 age offish has been a main factor in the production of 

 complaints against the cannery for deficiency of goods ; 

 complaints which are as complimentary as unreasonable. 

 For canning purposes sardines and mackerel are the 

 permanent mainstays of Indian work and when these fish 

 are absent the largest, best managed factory must run 

 short of goods unless it is old enough to have accumu- 

 lated great reserves. Usually sardine and mackerel in 

 condition for canning (all sardines are not) are frequent 

 from September to April ; during the season under 

 report, viz., 210 days from ist September, sardines were 

 obtainable only on 15 occasions, of which there were 

 only 5 from ist November to 31st March, usually the 

 height of the canning" season ; mackerel on 44 occasions 

 of which only 13 were in 1916. Hence, since the can- 

 nery though well fitted, is small and is still young and 

 experimental, only a few thousand tins could be prepared. 

 In fact the previous year was also bad, so that July 19 15 

 found the cannery practically without stock ; this reacted 

 unfavourably in the year under report since masses of 



* With tin plate reflectors attached to the sides and an arrangement for 

 keeping the glass cover of the nvpn jierpendicular to the sun's ra\s, 310" F. has 

 easily been attained (March 1917) and iht jieriod of high temperature greatly 

 lengthened. 



