13 



t 

 improvement and cheapening of fish transport by rail, the provision 

 of storm warnings along- the coast at State expenso, etc. 



Besidss the above duties, the Society assisted distressed fishermen 

 and widows and orphans of those overtaken by calamity, and in 1898 

 it wae solely entrusted by the Government with the duty not only of 

 preparing the exhibits for tlie International Fisheries Exhibition in 

 Norway in that year but of sending its officers to that country tor the 

 management of the exhibits. 



The Society has also done a great deal in the matter of culture 

 but it is believed that this has been abandoned except in one locality 

 which I inspected (see " pisciculture '^ below); pisciculture has so 

 developed as an industry that the Society no longer needs to work at 

 it. There are, it is said, six branch societies of which T was not able 

 to gather particulars. 



Several other societies interested in the fishing industry and in 

 studying matters of importance in connection therewith are also said 

 to exist, but the one described is the oldest and most important. 



18. It will be seen that this Society has done and is doing splen- 

 did work both scientific, practical, and educational (in a wide sense), 

 but while it arose out of the delegation by Government of its founders 

 to a foreign exhibition, it is itself purely the outcome of private ini- 

 tiative and public spirit, and thougb it works band in glove with the 

 Government in does so as an independent body. The readiness with 

 which the suggestions of its founders were accepted and the rapid 

 and practical development of the society have lessons peculiarly for 

 Madras ; it is for this reason that the work of the society has been 

 detailed with some fulness.* 



* It is indeed but a platitade — yet one that is often lost sight of Ly thobe who think 

 imitation of Japan easy — that the progress of the nation is due to its spirit and genius ; 

 a far-sighted and statesmanlike Goveimnent have done much, but in many items and 

 methods of progress they were anticipated by the people themselves and have shown 

 their statesmanship by developing aud assisting the nascent ideas or methods. For 

 instance, though Government sent delegates to an exhibition it was not only the action 

 of the delegates thereafter as private persons that led to the formation of the Fisheries 

 Society, but the ready response of the public to the call of those delegates ; Government, 

 again, noting this and similar instances (see Agricultural note) and observing the power 

 and possibilities of cc-operative association in western countries, further developed the 

 idea of association and made the practice universal by law ; the people, again, responsive 

 to wise suggestion, and prepared to tome extent by long-standing custom, accepted the 

 Government regulations, and, both in agriculture, industry, trade, and risheries, have 

 formed innumerable and practical associations throughout the country. It is this re- 

 sponsiveness to suggestion, this popular search for new knowledge and new openings, this 

 national eagerness to seize oppoitnnities, 1his readiness to wander over the world and 

 endure all manner of toil andhardship in the pursuit of practical knowledge and industrial 

 development, this absorption of the spirit and meaning of Western methods, this 

 readiness not merely to adopt but to adapt, assimilate, and even improve theuo. to Japanese 

 needs, that are among the char£,cteristics whicli, almost in a geneiation, have taken Japan 

 to her present position and which so strongly differentiate her from the people of the 

 middle and tropical East, History, climate, temperament will not be denied, 



