190 



1,250,078; that is to a million and a quarter of money, not the capital 

 of merchants or fish-curers, but the property, and in many cases the 

 only property of the poor fisherman, who if he loses his boat loses his 

 all. The above are large and valuable interests, and recent circum- 

 stances have increased, and are daily increasing their value. Our 

 coast railroads have become the means of creating and supplying the 

 great demand for fish in the interior of the country. The quantity of 

 herrings consumed fresh, or disposed of immediately after being caught, 

 during the past year, greatly exceeds the return of any former year; 

 showing that the facility which exists for transporting fish, is already 

 producing its effect on our Fisheries, and is likely greatly to increase 

 the demand. Not impossibly, too, the recent alteration in the Naviga- 

 tion Laws may induce vessels from France and Spain to resort to our 

 shores to purchase fish, and so lead to the reduction of the present high 

 duties in those countries; and thus a trade might be opened up where 

 now none exists. But whether the herring fishery increase or not, the 

 white fishery must increase. A ready supply of good food will not 

 be long neglected where there are the means of getting at it; and 

 every facility and encouragement should be given to the fisherman to 

 meet the demand with as little hardship and risk as possible to him- 

 self, and with as much economy as practicable to the consumer; and 

 this alone low-water harbours can effect; and they in their turn would 

 assuredly lead to the adoption of a better and safer class of boats." 



XVI. 

 MEMORANDA AS TO SEA FISHERIES. 



The price of fish is not enhanced to the consumer by the payment 

 of rent, owing to the property of fish being public. It only represents 

 the labour of taking it, and the profit on the value of the machinery 

 employed. But the comparative goodness, the scarcity of the article, 

 and the demand for it, are elements that enter into its value. The 

 fertility, or the barrenness of the sea, or of a river, diminish or raise 

 the price of the commodity. At distant markets the price assumes a 

 level. As any article in general use as food will range in value with 

 that of other articles of corresponding quality, it is to be believed that 

 any great increase of production from Fisheries will not diminish the 

 profits of the calling, but that fish will always fetch a proportional and 

 inferior price to the same weight of other animal food. 



The herring fishery is the staple and important branch of the trade. 

 Economy in the mode of smoking or curing this fish will reward the 

 inventor. Or a process for neutralizing the over-saltiness of the cured 

 article would bring red herrings into more general use. 



The development of the fisheries on any large scale of national value 

 depends upon the general home consumption of cured fish, or on an 

 extended export of the article when cured in a superior manner. The 

 sales effected by Government at their curing stations, during the famine, 

 showed a profit of from 50 to 80 per cent, on the purchase, cure, and 

 sale of fish, independent of the cost of the plant. The fishing com- 

 panies established at Dunmore, near Waterford, are reported by the 

 Commissioners as yielding a clear profit of from 10 to 13 per cent. 



