42 



(10) the Minister may demand tliat the owner of a subsidised 

 boat shall carry out any investigation in deep«sea (pelagic) fishing and 

 shall admit students of such fisheries on board for voyages ; 



(11) boats below 20 tons gross may, under special circum- 

 stances, obtain the benefit of this law. 



92. By rules under the law the fishing industries subsidised are 

 confined to whale, sea otter, fur-seal and bonito fishing, and to fishing 

 with trawls, drift nets, long lines, and hand lines ; the size of the 

 boats is also limited to certain minima and maxima, e.g., to 50 to 200 

 tons for steam trawlers and 20 to 100 for sailers ; steam carriers must 

 be within 80 to 250 tons and within 15 to 150 if sailers : the minimum 

 limitation is probably for the purpose of safety. Certificates of various 

 grades are issued to subsidised fishermen, and only head fishermen 

 holding first-class certificates are entitled to go anywhere and in any 

 class of boats as masters ; head fishermen of the second and third 

 grades are restricted to the nearer pelagic waters or to boats of 

 small size. 



93. As regards students, they must be graduates in the fishing 

 course of the Imperial Institute or persons of admittedly equal attain- 

 ments ; they must then study in the pelagic deparlment of that 

 Institute, but may also be ordered to embark on foreign fishing boats 

 or to go to foreign countries for special subjects of study and work. 



The course shall ordinarily be one of three years, and students will 

 receive either a monthly stipend or a lump sum : when sent abroad 

 travelling expenses will also be granted. (Unfortunately I have been 

 unable hitherto to ascertain the stipends given to students sent 

 abroad.) 



94. The results of the bounty system, which began in 1897, do not 

 seem remarkable, as will be seen by the following statistics. Yet 

 pelagic and foreign fishing has immensely increased, and Japanese 

 fishermen are numerous and energetic on the coasts of Siberia, Canada, 

 America, Korea, China and the islands of the Pacific, showing that 

 the enterprise of capitalists and fishermen is, in the circumstances of 

 Japan, more efficacious in promoting fisheries in distant foreign waters 

 than mere bounties, especially when the latter are coupled with various 

 restrictive rules or conditions. In 1905 only 36 vessels aggregating 

 2,o89 tons and with 793 hands were entitled to bounties; 20 of these 

 were engaged in fur-sealing and 10 in shark catching, and only one 

 was a steamer, viz., a swift carrier of 143 tons, a crew of 13, and 

 I.H.P. of 135 ; one boat for catching bonito, of 25 tons, had a 

 20 H.P. petroleum engine; the rest were sailers. The total catches 

 of these subsidised boats in 1905 were valued at Rs. 7,99,000, of 

 which Rs. 6,20,000 were due to fur- sealing. The number of head 

 fishermen qualified and certified under the Act was 79, of whom 70 

 were in the second grade ; 228 fishermen were also certified. The 



