Letter — from Sir F. A. Nicholson, k.c.i.e., I.C.S., Honorary 



Director of Fisheries. 

 Dated — Madras, the 23rd December 191 2. 



I have the honour to submit remarks on the second 

 sub-paragraph of paragraph 5 in G.O. No. 2638, Rev- 

 enue of 3rd September, reviewing my report for 191 1- 

 1912. 



2. The sub-paragraph instructs me in future to 

 report [a) " the amount of fish products placed on the 

 market by the department. " 



3. Point (a). — This raises the whole question of indus- 

 trial and commercial, as against experimental, work, to 

 which I referred at length in paragraph 19 of my report 

 for 1909-10, and again in my report for 1910-11. 

 Hitherto our work, beginning at first with investigation, 

 has been experimental, viz., attempts to ascertain the 

 technical methods most suitable to our fish and in our 

 climate ; to adapt Western processes to our conditions. 

 We have now obtained such an amount of technical 

 success and experience that we can take the further step 

 of translating experimental into industrial work, the 

 obvious and necessary complement to which is commer- 

 cial work, viz., the sale of the goods industrially 

 produced. 



It is only by placing goods on the market as a busi- 

 ness proposition that we can either test their accepta- 

 bility or their profitableness. By the experience we 

 have gained we can now supply untainted fish in all 

 lines ; we ca7i provide light-cured, semi-dried, pilchar- 

 dized, pickled, smoked, and canned products not one of 

 which has hitherto been commercially on the market, 

 and it is not possible to gauge the public tastes — 

 especially in different localities and communities — with- 

 out providing a supply on a fairly large, continuous, and 

 reliable scale. Hence technical success such as we have 

 gained, is only a first success ; we have now to ascertain 

 whether our technically successful products meet the 

 public tastes, and where modifications may be desirable, 

 and of what sort. Moreover, the main point in estab- 

 lishing a new industry — or at all events new lines of 

 goods — is whether they can be produced and sold 

 profitably ; profit is the touchstone of industrial success 

 for it is only profit which, at one and the same time, 



