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to the Coast Fisheries, as a boundless source of profitable employment, 

 and some very gratifying instances have been afforded by benevolent 

 persons of the benefit arising from the application to the object of a 

 little capital judiciously directed. Since the commencement of these 

 distressing times, the terms ' fishery station' and 'curing house,' have 

 become more familiar upon most parts of the coast than they ever were 

 in days of comparative prosperity. 



The establishment of the Government curing stations at Killybegs, 

 Belmullet, Valentia, Castletown, and Baltimore, has, for example, 

 been productive of as much benefit as could, under the circumstances, 

 have been reasonably anticipated; and although the wind up of these 

 concerns will not elicit profitable results in a pecuniary way, they have 

 in an educational point, and as models of an improved system, been 

 gradually successful. The extent of business done was at all times less 

 an object in those establishments than the exhibition of a better cured 

 article, and the training of all who wished to learn a better and more 

 thrifty management. 



The Society of Friends, eminently prominent in their judicious and 

 benevolent efforts to alleviate the distresses of the people, directed their 

 attention to the fisheries; and in all cases where their proceedings were 

 under the control of their own managers, or where they had the good 

 fortune to find judicious administrators of their bounty, permanent good 

 results have followed ; but in most instances their liberal system of relief 

 was antagonistic to our stringent regulations, which wholly precluded 

 every species of gratuitous aid in any shape. This branch will form a 

 subject for a distinct report when the concerns are all wound up. The 

 indefatigable exertions of the Rev. Mr. Alcock, at Helvick Head, aided 

 by Mr. Strangman of Waterford, and Lord Stewart de Decies, have 

 produced an establishment which deserves to be ranked very high on 

 our list. The piscatory school at Galway, under the management of 

 the reverend gentlemen of the Dominican Convent, with an auxiliary 

 curing house, established by the Rev. Mr. D'Arcy, and other gentlemen, 

 with the aid of funds given by the Society of Friends, under the super- 

 intendence of an experienced Cornish fish-curer, have proved infinitely 

 valuable to that locality. The Society of Friends have been our succes- 

 sors at Castletown, Berehaven. 



The Earl of Courtown, and a small company formed at Courtown, 

 having secured the services of one of our Scotch curers, Mr. James Low, 

 have produced specimens of the finest bloaters, and other cured fish, that 

 have come to the Dublin market Lord Courtown and Mr. George Le 

 Hunte, of Artramont, in the county of Wexford, both sent young men 

 to be trained at our station, at Killybegs, by Mr. Windrum, our curer 

 there, who instructed them gratuitously in fish-curing and coopering; 

 and Mr. Le Hunte, who has also established a small curing concern on 

 the Wexford coast, after the closure of our Killybegs concern, sent the 

 same young man to Montrose to be perfected in the trade by the father 

 of Mr. Low. The introduction of an improved description of coopers' 

 tools, which were brought from Scotland for our stations, proved a 

 valuable acquisition for the manufacture offish barrels ; such implements 

 for this special purpose never having been in use before by the trades- 

 men here; they are now considered valuable models at Killybegs, 

 Belmullet, Dingle, Castletown, and Courtown ; having been purchased 



