86 



(4) that improved sailers to supplement the present 

 fishing boats are, however, an essential in the develop- 

 ment of Madras fisheries, since the catamaran and 



dup--out are inshore boats which thouorfi costing much 



• 111 



m time and labour are too weak and comfortless to 



exploit any but the margins of our coastal fishing- 

 grounds and cannot fulfil the essential condition of pre- 

 serving the fish from taint in transit to shore from any 

 but short distances ; 



(5) that larger boats would readily exploit the 

 fishing grounds (within 100 fathoms), seeing that these 

 grounds lie alongside the 1,650 miles of coast (exclusive 

 of indentations) in a comparatively narrow belt nowhere 

 exceeding 60 or 70 miles of easy sea and averaging less 

 than 20 on the East Coast and less than 40 on the West 

 Coast, and that such boats would render possible modern 

 methods such as the proper treatment and cleaning of 

 the fish at sea, the use of preservative methods, the 

 keeping of fish alive in live wells to shore, and so forth, 

 by which the dangers at present existing from tainted 

 goods may be largely obviated ; 



(6) that the swift carrier is, if not an essential, a 

 most powerful instrument in the production and placing 

 on the market of sound edible goods at moderate price ; 



(7) that the use of preservatives and preservative 

 methods is essential not only to development but to 

 public health ; with an indication of the methods, 

 including canning, which arc at present open ; 



(8) that these reform,s, if successful, will 

 develop — 



[a] the high class markets of the interior, 

 (/;) the cheap markets of the people, while 

 removing serious hygienic dangers ; 



(9) that these reforms being comparatively simple 

 and cheap, can and will be carried out by indigenous 

 action both in the industry and in the distributing trade, 

 Indian firms and individuals being already engaged in 

 the trade, anxious for developments, and ready both to 

 co-operate with Government in experimenting and to 

 adopt the developments proved by experiment ; 



(10) that by developing on these lines the existing 

 large fisher population will be as little as possible dis- 

 turbed either in social or industrial status and will be 

 brought into the line of progress by gradual steps ; 



