i6 



with fresh water, driving out the estuarine sea water and 

 kilhng off the fish. The argument reminds one of the more 

 famihar story of old maids and clov-er crops : Increase of old 

 maids means increase of cats, which brings about decrease of 

 mice ; decrease of mice means increase of bees, on which they 

 feed, and increased number of bees ensures better fertihsation 

 of the clover plant. 



Such great floods, however, are not very frequent occur- 

 rences, and cannot be the cause of any great diminution in the 

 fish supply generally. 



10. Some 25 years ago an American schooner, the Alice, 

 visited the Cape especially equipped with purse-seine nets 

 for the capture chiefly of Mackerel, for which there was a great 

 demand in America. The nets proved very effective, not only 

 Mackerel but many kinds of fish being caught in very large 

 numbers. As Mackerel only were wanted, the other fish were 

 practically given away. The catching of such numbers of 

 fish, by means of this kind of net, which was entirely new to 

 the native fishermen, aroused suspicion that the method 

 adopted was injurious to the fishing industry, and the fisher- 

 men made representations to the Government that the fish 

 supply was being seriously affected. There being no inde- 

 pendent evidence available that the fish supply was not 

 diminishing, nor that the operation of the American nets were 

 not the cause of the alleged diminution, a law was passed in 

 1890 (repealed in 1892) restricting the size of nets in such a 

 way as to render it impossible to use the new net. 



11. The development of the traivliiig industry was at one 

 time jeopardised by allegations that diminution of the fish 

 supply had followed the introduction of this method 

 of fishing. As a result of the survey of the Government 

 trawler the Pieter Faure large areas were found suitable 

 for trawling. At the outset of this experiment the 

 results did not seem promising, and no opposition was 

 aroused. One native fisherman, indeed, undertook to 

 " eat all the fish the Pieter Faure could catch." When, 

 however, the Government trawler began to land fish in large 

 quantities, objections cropped up on various sides to such a 

 method of fishing. The supply of fish, it was stated, was 

 falling off as a result of the trawling, and serious damage was 

 being done to the " spawn " of the fish, which lay on the sea 

 bottom, over which the trawl net was dragged. Representa- 

 tions were made to Parliament, and so serious did the matter 

 seem that a Select Committee was appointed to enquire into 

 the allegations. Fortunately a system of fishery statistics 

 had been instituted, and investigations into the spawning 



