53 



tlie upper waters closed, as each winter will bring a fresh 

 supply of marketable fish within reach of their nets. 



It is also stated that in severe southerly weather the men must 

 either go up the river or lie idle at great loss, but the upper 

 waters are only worth netting in summer and autumn, when 

 southerly gales are rare. The men who are really the sufferers 

 by heavy southerly weather, are not the seine net men, but 

 the deej)-sea fishermen, who have to get from 20 to 60 miles 

 out on to the exposed coast. 



It is a rather significant fact that since the closing of the 

 river, deep-sea well-boats of superior build have increased in 

 number, and, with the single exception of flounders, the better 

 fish have been brought to market in such numbers that real 

 trumpeter are now cheaper than when the river was open, 

 although quantities are occasionally sent to Melbourne. 



It is quite probable that if the upper waters were thrown open 

 during the next two seasons, there would be for a time such 

 a supply that the market of the deep-sea fish might be mate- 

 rially affected, and some of the boats withdrawn from an 

 industry which deserves every encouragement — in other words, 

 we should sacrifice a legitimate trade for that which ought to 

 be considered illegitimate. 



Even if some hardships could be shown to exist, surely the 

 future interests of the whole public are not to be sacrificed for 

 the immediate and short lived benefit of some two dozen men, 

 for it must be remembered that in the port of Hobart Town, 

 the whole of the boats and gear fitted for this destructive fish- 

 ing, are the property of two individuals, and that the hands 

 employed in it rarely exceed 20 at any one time. The injury 

 inflicted upon these 20 men and their families, by the closing 

 of the river, can only be estimated at the difference between 

 the wages they used to earn at the fishing in 1864, when it 

 was failing perceptibly, and what they can now earn at any 

 other occupation, and that difference must be trifling. 



As to the second ground upon which the oj^ening of the 

 river is advocated, it is by no means certain that allowing the 

 nets to be worked for a few miles up the river would lead to 

 the capture of salmon, for there can at present only be a few 

 mature fish scattered over a wide expanse of water, and no 

 net really adapted for salmon fishing in the wide tidal waters, 

 with a mesh eight inches round when wet, it is to be found in 

 the colony, and if it could be found it would not suit the pur- 

 pose of those fishermen, who, caring little for the success or 

 failure of the salmon experiment, simply wish to scrape out 

 everything saleable, and would never be satisfied to use a mesh 

 through which a fair sized smolt could pass, 



Again, it is quite possible that the space travelled over by 



