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for the State, because they would have paid very well. 

 He was very glad indeed for the sake of the fisheries 

 to find that Mr. Bloomfield had taken up this question, 

 and every one who had heard the Paper would agree 

 with him that he had dealt with it in a very exhaustive 

 manner. He was sorry to be obliged to say, that there 

 were very few men occupying a high social position in 

 Ireland who took any practical interest in this question, 

 and, therefore, Mr. Bloomfield's Paper was all the more 

 welcome. The Paper read by Mr. Walsh was also of a 

 most important character. He was practically engaged 

 in the fishery enterprise in the south of Ireland, and had 

 shown how it could be made to pay. The interest in 

 this subject was not confined to Ireland, it was of 

 national importance when one considered the vast amount 

 of fish consumed in the United States. He had taken 

 great trouble to prepare a statement, which he would put 

 before the House of Commons, showing the aggregate 

 amount of fish consumed in the United States, and it 

 amounted to the enormous quantity of twelve millions a 

 year ; that was chiefly sea fish, and was entirely independent 

 of importations from Norway, Newfoundland, or else- 

 where, in the preserved condition. Out of that total the 

 amount captured by Englishmen was eight millions ster- 

 ling, Scotland three millions, and not more than half a 

 million for Ireland, and of that a considerable portion 

 was taken by Manx, Scotchmen, and Cornishmen ; and 

 even the French fishermen came in considerable numbers 

 to the Kinsale coast It seemed very strange that Ireland 

 should contribute so little to the national larder, when it 

 was asserted so often that there was no diminution of 

 the quantity on the coast, and, from his experience, he 

 believed such to be the fact. In old times the English 



