4^ 



98. Another instance of tlie fostering of the industry is in the 

 grant of a rebate of the import duty of all olive oil re-exported in the 

 shape of canned fish ; the import duty before the new tariff of May 

 1906 was Rs, 6 for 133 lb. But there is no serious duty on oil 

 imported into India. Tin-plate was by that tariff imported dutyfree, 

 obviously with the iatention of supporting the export industry in 

 various canned goods. 



Establishment of close times and places, andprohibilion of injuriuus 

 practices. — As will be seen by perusal of the Fisliei'ies Law of 1901 

 power is taken to suspend, abrogate, or otherwise limit fishing 

 rights and privileges whenever it is found necessary for the protec- 

 tion or improvement of fisheries ; for instance, by section 13, Prefects, 

 with the sanction of the Minister, can issue orders to limit or prohibit 

 the catching or selling of marine products, to limit or prohibit par- 

 ticular methods or the use of particular implements to limit the number 

 of licensed fishermen, to prohibit or regulate the fishing of the 

 waters ; the Minister himself can prohibit or regulate the placing of 

 any construction {e.y., weir, or anient) which may interfei'e with the 

 passing of fish up a stream, and so forth. The use of explosives 

 is entirely forbidden by one of the rules issued for the execution of 

 the law. 



99. By way of illustration the following rules are taken from the 

 regulations of the Aichi Prefecture, which, of course, has rules suited 

 to its own conditions and quite different from those of other districts. 

 Rule 9 provides for the suspension, restriction, orcancelment of licenses 

 to fish when a fishery is recognised as harmful to the protection and 

 increase of marine animals and plants or to public interest. Rule 11 

 prohibits the catching of certain fish and of all fish during certain 

 seasons, e.g., sea-cucumber (Holothurian, beche-de-mer) between 

 1st May and November 30, young mullet between May 1 and July 31, 

 young eels between March 1 and May 31 : it is obvious that these 

 close times can only be laid down upon a complete knowledge of the 

 bionomics of the various fish, and it is the object of the several fish 

 Commissions and of the Department and Experimental Stations, to 

 ascertain the life history of all marine products with a view both to 

 their protection and cultivation as well as to their capture. So also 

 by rule 13 the fishing of sea-cucumber and of sardines is prohibited 

 in certain areas which are defined by reference to certain marks and 

 bearings. Eule 14 prohibits all fishing from 1st September to 31st 

 December of every year along certain parts of various rivers or even 

 the taking of sand aud pebbles, presumably in view to avoid dis- 

 turbing the spawning fish though the season seems strange ; and 

 another rule prohibits the obstruction of a certain river to the passage 

 of anadromous fish. Rule 16 excludes the use of the gill-net for 

 sardines from certain inshore areas : apparently this is to avoid 



