ii 



learned regarding Western methods compelled them to recognise the 

 necessity for public co-operative work by all persons interested in the 

 fishing industry, if progress was to be made. The Fisheries Society 

 of Japan was accordingly started by their efforts in 1882 under the 

 presidency of a Prince of the Imperial family, since which time it has 

 done splendid work which will now be detailed; figures, etc., are 

 mostly up to 1900 only. In the first place it is a society which com- 

 bines science with practice ; it is a working and not a talking society ; 

 there are lectures, discussions, and conferences but they are by prac- 

 tical men for definite practical objects, and the outcome is practical 

 work by its member? and staff ; its lectures are on practical subjects 

 intended for public industrial enlightenment. The members are 

 mainly men connected with or interested in the industry such as 

 fishery proprietors, fishermen, manufacturers of marine products, 

 students, scientists and experts, with only a sprinkling of oflScials. 

 The membership (subscription Rs. 3} in the first year was 471 but 

 steadily rose to 2,144 in 1893, to 4,826 in 190O, and it has now well 

 over 5.000 members. It has the usual officials (honorary), besides 

 experts and specialists who are presumably paid; in 18 years up to 

 1900 there had been 18 general meetings, 124 regular meetings when 

 lectures were given by experts and discussions held on fishing subjects, 

 the audiences numbering from 140 to 2,500 ; other lectures were also 

 occasionally given. In 1886 the society began a series of public 

 exhibitions of which there were 10 in various places up to 1900 ; these 

 were extremely useful in conveying a knowledge of new methods and 

 implements and in the interchange of knowledge between various 

 fishing districts ; especially was this the case in the matter of better 

 boats and nets. The Society also opened a museum and library which 

 was destroyed by fire and has not been replaced, an omission much to 

 be regretted. In 1888 the Society started one of its most useful works, 

 viz., a Fishery school for the education of selected young men in modern 

 fishery methods both catching, preserving and cuituring, and in the 

 correlated sciences ; this was immediately successful ; from 1893 it 

 was developed by grants from the Minister of Agriculture, and in 

 1897 it was finally transformed into the Government Training Insti- 

 tution described in detail later on. During the nine years of its 

 existence as an institution of the Society it turned out 395 graduates 

 nearly all of whom are now directly connected with the industry and 

 are leading spirits in its development. 



15. The Society issues a regular monthly journal in Japanese, 

 now close on its 300th number. The character and objects of the 

 Society may be gauged from the title page of an issue taken at ran- 

 dom ; there are four leading articles (1) on certain islands and stations 

 for high sea fisheries, (2) on the encouragement of sardine canning, 

 (3) on the fishery law, (4) on the utilisation of the sea ; there are 



