2tl 



much honour is ownig for his advocacy of this industrial 

 concession. 



Dr. Day's suggestions were accepted by the Madras 

 Government, and from 1882 a gradually increasing 

 number of yards, or bonded enclosures, were opened, at 

 which salt is issued not only free of duty but often at 

 rates much below the local cost of the salt to Government. 

 In South Canara the charge per Indian maund (82 lb.) is 

 As. 6-8, or 15 shillings per ton, a price which includes 

 the whole cost of transport from the very distant salt 

 pans of Bombay, Madras or Tuticorin ; in other districts 

 the inclusive cost is 10 annas or ^1-2-6 per ton, the 

 practical result is that the total price charged by Govern- 

 ment is often less than the mere transport charge, in 

 which case the concession is an actual bounty. Govern- 

 ment take no direct part in the curing ; the only conditions 

 are that the fish shall be brought into the yard, salted 

 and dried within its limits, and kept there till presumed 

 fit for issue : the proportion of salt issued is governed 

 by rules which have had the sanction of many years. 

 There are 143 such yards scattered along the coast in 

 which something over 50,000 tons of wet dressed fish are 

 annually cured, the bulk of the yards and by far the 

 greater bulk of the fish cured, being on the comparatively 

 short line of the West Coast which is far more prolific 

 than the eastern. 



The result of this concession to the industry has not 

 been all that was expected by Dr. Day, for the cure has 

 not developed in quality, or even in quantity, proportion- 

 ately to the cheapness of salt; the East Coast cure remains 

 precisely what it was in Dr. Day's time and long before 

 him or before a salt duty was charged,^ viz., an article 

 often very badly tainted, the reasons being that the market 

 seems to prefer or at least to be reconciled to a highly 

 flavoured product which the curers can produce in their 

 ancient way and with the minimum of care and charge, 

 while, as will presently be seen, the mere cheapness 

 of salt cannot counteract the results as to taint of lonof- 

 standing primitive and defective customs in catching and 

 marketing. The product of the West Coast is, in general, 

 far better, partly because of the ease with which fish 

 is caught close to the coast, partly because of the 

 comparative abundance of fish so that much is taken 

 direct to the curing yards, partly because of the immense 



