No. 3 (T917) TUTICORIN FISHING INDUSTRY ^7 



The numbers given represent the average of men working 

 when the respective fisheries are in vigorous prosecution ; they 

 fluctuate considerably however from time to time, as they use 

 different nets at different seasons and because a certain number of 

 the men take up other work either when fishing is poor, or when the 

 counterattraction is great. For example when the port is busy 

 with exports or imports and the demand for lighterage is great, a 

 certain proportion of the fisher class find it more profitable to act 

 as lighter crews. Or again they may quarry coral on the reefs, 

 or enlist as chank divers. A pearl fishery in Ceylon causes a great 

 exodus of fishermen and lightermen as nearly all are fairly expert 

 divers. At such a time fish become scarce in theTuticorin market 

 and the discharge and loading of steamer cargoes a matter of 

 much difficulty, owing to the consequent shortage of labour. 



The men are by no means thrifty, but a living wage is easily 

 made, sufficient to ensure an adequate dietary and to keep their 

 families in comparative comfort, judging this by the ordinary 

 standard of the labouring classes of the neighbourhood. On an 

 average I calculate that they earn about 12 annas per head per 

 working day. Apart from food and clothing, a considerable 

 portion of their earnings goes in the purchase of toddy and this 

 undoubtedly is the principal cause preventing a considerable 

 improvement in their economic condition. Taken generally they 

 are a fine sturdy race with a marked sense of independence ; 

 inclined to be quarrelsome and noisy but easy to control if they 

 be treated with sympathy and firmness. They are happy in being 

 largely 'freemen ' in the financial sense. Their catches are sold 

 by auction immediately they come to land — there is no sowcar 

 middleman who, because of money advanced, is able to take their 

 catch at his own rates and keep them in perpetual penury as 

 happens so often on the Ramnad coast. They work on a fair share 

 system whereby in the case of net fishermen, the proceeds are 

 divided thus :— half the total to the owner of the nets for their 

 upkeep and replacement and the other half in equal shares to each 

 fisherman and to the boatowner who ranks in this division of pro- 

 ceeds on an equal basis with a fisherman. If they consider the 

 auction rates too low, due usually to some attempt at combination to 

 depress rates on the part of the dealers, I have several times found 

 the fishermen decline to sell at such rates and rush the fish off to 

 the market to sell direct to the public. The life is however a 



