74 EARHA. FISHERIES. 



to perform this additional duty with ease to themselves 

 and the people, and at a very slight expense. 



Inconveniences also arise from the difficulty of commu- 

 nication which results from the deficiency and imperfection 

 of roads, ferries, and post offices. With respect to the 

 former, much has been recently done to remove them, but 

 more is yet wanting. It would be too much to expect 

 universal satisfaction where so many jarring interests are 

 concerned, and where misrepresentation must sometimes 

 inevitably defeat the best intentions of the government. 

 There can be no doubt that its interest is concerned, 

 in promoting for the general welfare, those improve- 

 ments which the individuals are, in districts so poor, 

 unable to undertake. If its intentions are occasionally 

 obstructed by the particular views or imaginary interests of 

 proprietors, it is no great matter of surprise. The tedious 

 and limited communication by posts is often injurious, by 

 preventing an early knowledge of the fluctuations of prices 

 in the articles of export. Th.us speculators in kelp, cattle, 

 or wool, frequently profit by the ignorance of the producer. 

 Where agriculture has a character so commercial, the free- 

 dom of communication cannot be too great. If a small sa- 

 crifice of immediate revenue is made for this object, either 

 by the proprietors or the government, it will be ultimately 

 replaced by the improvement of the country at large. 



A few remarks of a different nature remain to be made 

 on the fisheries. They have been productive of advantages 

 to the proprietors, and consequently to the country, in a way 

 which does not appear to have been originally foreseen, 

 however well it is now understood. These advantages con- 

 sist in the increase of value which the lands have under- 

 gone by their extension, even where that extension is 

 still limited to a partial domestic supply. Hence arise the 

 chief benefits of the crofting system, the most efficient 

 and profitable changes of this nature having been the allot- 

 ments of small farms on the sea shore. Rents have thus 

 been obtained for farms of a division so minute as to 

 have been nearly incapable of paying any from their 



