fishing and fisheries. If, however, I were to attempt 

 any elaborate review of the fish trade of these islands, I 

 should probably exceed my own powers and I should 

 certainly exhaust your patience. Instead of doing so, 

 therefore, I shall confine most of the remarks I propose 

 to make to you this afternoon to some of the salient 

 points connected with the internal traffic of fish in this 

 country. 



Before doing so, however, I should like to make one or 

 two observations respecting our foreign trade in fish, because 

 that subject, I think, is one which is not fully understood. 

 Last year we imported into this country fish worth, 

 in round numbers, ^1,660,000, and we exported from the 

 country fish worth £ 1,820,000. In point of value, therefore, 

 the exports of fish almost balance the imports — there is no 

 great difference between the two. In point of quantity, 

 however, there is a very great difference. I believe that 

 the amount of fish imported into this country was about 

 45,000 tons, whilst the amount of fish which we sent abroad 

 probably reached 110,000 tons. The fish which we 

 imported from abroad, at any rate that proportion of fish 

 which the Board of Trade includes in their trade returns, 

 consisted almost entirely of salt fish — most of the salt 

 fish which we eat on the first and last days of Lent 

 was presumably taken off the coasts of Norway and 

 Newfoundland. But I believe there is a considerable 

 import of fish which is not recognised by the Board of 

 Trade. For instance, the large salmon which arrive in 

 the autumn in London, which you may see in any fish- 

 monger's shop in London, come from the Rhine. The 

 lobsters which you are eating now come from Norway ; 

 whilst the American canneries, to adopt a word which the 

 Americans have coined, send us large and increasing 



