14 Australian- Fisiiekies. 



The " Endeavour's " fishing- grounds can accommodate 

 al)out I20 trawlers, and these would l)ring- the supply up to 

 ahout 31 lbs. per head of population against the presem 

 9 lbs. For comparison, it may be stated that the con- 

 sumption of fish in Great Britain is estimated at 42 lbs. per 

 head. Great Dritain is considered a great meat-eating- 

 nation, and, according- to statistics, the consumption is 

 about 115 lbs. per head annually, in Australia, however, 

 the corresponding- figure is 276 lbs. (poultry excluded), so 

 there is great scope for alteration and improvement. Meat 

 has previously been very cheap, and most families are still 

 affording their three meals of it a day. Jhit the increasing- 

 export trade in frozen produce is altering all this, and 

 meat is now practically as expensive in Australia as in the 

 United Kingdom. It is under these circumstances that 

 the housewives are becoming concerned, and the question 

 of a cheap fish supply is constantly cropping up, with an 

 always increasing seriousness. So much light has of late 

 been thrown on this question, and efforts made by the 

 authorities, that evidently it is only the temporary apathy 

 on the part of financial ]jeople towards anything relating 

 to the sea that has prevented this sound and much-needed 

 industrial development from maturing. But it is a question 

 of time onl\- when tnrough increasing competition and 

 other causes the local investors will think it worth while to 

 enter upon fisheries enterprise — a much safer and richer 

 one than many of the hazardous ventures so cheerily sup- 

 ported in what elsewhere would be termed a gambling 

 spirit; and the question of the moment is rather whether 

 they will be in time. The strong and long-established fishing- 

 companies of the United Kingdom have naturally been slow- 

 in following up this new- development on account of their 

 fleets being i^rofitably employed elsewhere, but now there 

 is strong evidence that at least a few of the more progres- 

 sive are slov^-ly but surely directing their attention towards 

 the virgin " fields "' of Australia. 



Finally, it is of interest to mention that some six or 

 seven years ago the Japanese obtained their first trawler 

 equipped froni Great Britain; the business has since 

 increased at such a rate that more than 100 trawline vessels 

 are now at work, mostlv locallv built, and thev no loncrer 

 confine their operations to liome waters, but are met with 

 along the coasts of Korea, and further and further south 

 in Chinese waters. Australia must do likewise, or will 

 have to de])end upon others. 



^IjiLPouKXE, September 5tli, 1913. 



