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with no special harbours or railway facilities, with a 

 wholly unorganized and very low priced market in the 

 interior, with uncertain and perhaps merely short-season 

 harvests, and in a tropical climate where taint is imme- 

 diate and ice unattainable or costly, the central capitalist 

 factory positively invites loss if, except perhaps at one 

 or two localities, it invests heavily in plant. The cost of 

 running- a steam fleet, the uncertainty of its catches 

 especially when restricted from interference with the 

 habitual inshore fishing grounds of the ordinary folk, 

 the inability to dispose of such catches except at its own 

 factory, and many other reasons, rule out, for the present, 

 anything except localized effort as displayed in better 

 sailing boats plus small motors ; the wholly British idea 

 which has actually been promulgated in this Presidency, 

 of a steam fleet seeking out fish anywhere in the deep- 

 sea and delivering catches at any port where it might 

 find itself, is ludicrous in the absence of an organized 

 market, trade, and communications. Hence the foster- 

 ing of local effort and small plant, the supervision of their 

 methods, and the purchase of their goods, is a more 

 hopeful and possible plan. Similarly in the fish-oil and 

 fertilizer trade, the difficulties in dealino- with the fish 

 at a central factory are immense, and, as already argued 

 above, the more advisable plan is one which is consistent 

 with the development of the small folk, viz., the fostering 

 of a chain of petty works by small folk. 



To sum up ; we have in this Madras Presidency an 

 ancient industry employing a large population but primi- 

 tive in its methods from catch to sale ; knowledge and 

 capital, energy and organization, introduced as much as 

 possible by private enterprise, are necessary to improve 

 the old and develop new methods in such wise as to 

 ensure that the present catches shall all be turned into 

 wholesome food ; that these catches shall be gradually 

 augmented, as the fisher folk show capacity to deal with 

 them, so as to assist in feeding a growing population ; 

 that fish which for any good reason cannot be turned 

 into direct food shall, after the expression of their oil, 

 be turned into high class fertilizer for the benefit of 

 Indian soil ; that fish waste shall be utilized to the utmost 

 possible extent ; and that these developments shall be 

 carried out as far as possible through and for the benefit 

 of the existing fisher folk and curers, and by means, on 

 17-A 



