140 NEW SOUTH WALES 



daily freights up to Saturday morning. She collects her freights from 

 fishermen at Broken Bay, and goes about 10 miles up the Hawkesbury 

 River. It was ascertained that for this service her owners receive one- 

 third of the proceeds of all fish carried by this vessel to market. The 

 fishermen supplying the Market do not seem to have any direct dealings 

 with the fishmongers or hawkers who are engaged in the distribution of 

 the fish ; but the entire business between the producers and the fisher- 

 men is managed by agents, who collect the moneys from the buyers and 

 jiay them over with commission deducted, to the fishermen. As may at 

 once be ascertained by a reference to the figures contained in the tables 

 prepared by Mr. Inspector Seymour, the fish supply is quite unequal to 

 the existing local demand, while with the immensely increased facilities 

 for disposal created by the opening up of railway communication with 

 places in the interior, where no supplies of fish can be obtained except 

 from the seaboard, there seems no reason for supposing that under 

 existing circumstances any such demand could be at all satisfactorily 

 met ; and yet, as will be seen hei-eaf ter, the sources of supply, if properly 

 guarded, are pi-actically equal to any demand that could possibly be made 

 upon them. At present the price of fish is, as will be seen from the 

 evidence, excessively high.* In January of this year bream were fetch- 

 ing from 30s. to £2 a bushel (that is^sold wholesale to the fish-hawkers) ; 

 schnapper were readily fetching from 28s. to 30s. a dozen ; squii'es, from 

 5s. to 15s. a dozen; whiting, from 6s. to 8s. a dozen ; garfish were sold 

 at c£2 18s. a bushel ; soles and flounders at times Is. to 2s. per pair, and 

 other varieties of fish at proportionate prices. The prices given by the 

 consumers, who in the absence (with but a few exceptions) of regular 

 fish-shops, purchase from the hawkers, are enormously increased — in some 

 cases, as will be seen by the evidence, doubled, and in others quadrupled. 

 The inadequacy of the supply to meet the demand may be inferred from 

 the value of the imports as it is furnished by the Statistical Register. 

 From this it would appear preserved fish of various kinds was imported 

 to the value of £161,970 in 1877, and £133,334 in 1878. We ascer- 

 tained that there are several places even in the city of Sydney itself 

 where fish is rarely if ever seen, and where the people have become so 

 entirely unaccustomed to the use of it as an article of food that they 

 seldom if ever think of purchasing it. 



* This was written in 1879. 



