1883.] TEE INDUSTBIES OF SHETLAXD. 35 



the formation or maintenance of a race of independent and intelligent 

 citizens.' He therefore recommends ' a warning of at least one year, 

 and the recovery from the landlord., or succeeding tenant, of compen- 

 sation for improvements by summary means.' ' Here too,' he adds, 

 ' it may perhaps be said that legislation ought not to be of a local and 

 exceptional character,' and he hopes that when the Land Tenancy Laws 

 of Scotland are reformed ' Shetland will not be forgotten.' 



!Mr. Guthrie hardly felt himself entitled to propose the only remedial 

 measures which could prove effective. * I have not,' he informs the 

 Board of Trade, ' thought myself at liberty to enter upon the land 

 question in Shetland as a substantive part of the inquiiy ; but it is 

 plain that the prevalence of Truck is due in no small degree to the 

 habit of dependence, or submission, which the faulty relations between 

 landlords and tenants have fostered.' 



Fortunately for Shetland, its condition has very greatly improved 

 since the period when Mr. Guthrie made his report. Tillage farming 

 on a small scale could not possibly compete with that of the Scotch 

 farmers, and of the improving lairds ; and the result has been a large 

 extension of pastoral farming and of sheep breeding on a large scale, 

 with a considerable diminution of the population within the past ten 

 years. The fishing industry has been most fortunately developed, so 

 that the people are decidedly better off, and may now be said to be 

 prospering. Tbe number of boats engaged in that branch of fishing 

 called the ' haaf,' commencing in April and continuing nearly four 

 months, has largely increased ; and the herring fishery has been 

 prosecuted with great energy. In 1875, only 2,896 barrels of herrings 

 were cured; the number has now reached 134,000 barrels. The 

 herring season commences in June on the "West side of the islands, 

 and en-is in July on the east side, where the principal fishing stations 

 are at Lerwick, and in Yell and Unst : the season commences in 

 August and ends in October. 



Some of the more hazardous occupations of the Shetlanders have 

 decreased since the extension of their native fisheries. The Faroe and 

 Iceland cod fisheries have both become less popular, and the number 

 of 'hands' that embarked for the Greenland fishing in 1882 was only 

 three hundred ; and in the same year, the Davis's Straits whale-fishing 

 attracted only two hundred Shetlanders. 



The prices paid for fresh fish by the curers'have considerably 

 advanced, and are now as follows : ling, per cwt., Ss. Gd. ; cod, 7s. 6d. ; 

 tusk, 5s. 6d. ; halibut, 10s., till Maj-, then 6s. All these details may 

 serve to explain the subsidence of complaints against the defective 

 land system of Shetland. The statistics are all favourable, except the 

 decrease of the population ; and the material prosperity of the islands 

 is believed to be secure,, haviug been assured by the development of 

 native industry by a most patient, energetic, law-abiding race— a hint 

 for Irt.daud. 



