CHKONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 265 



safely dispensed with by the remainder ; and that tlie 

 delay and trouble necessarily occasioned by the conditions 

 requisite to be fulfilled, produce some expense and incon- 

 venience, and sometimes the loss of markets. They com- 

 plain that the detention of the herrings during the fifteen 

 days required before they can be lawfully branded, leads 

 to a large simultaneous export, which gluts the foreign 

 market. Some of the witnesses, moreover, have stated 

 that the export trade to Europe is over stimulated by the 

 facilities to which I shall presently more particularly 

 allude, and that exporters pay too little regard to the state 

 of the demand in the continental markets, but export at 

 all hazards ; and as an illustration of this practice, they 

 advert to the enhanced price of green, that is, uncured 

 fish, and they assert that the curers are at the mercy of 

 the fishermen. They refer to the increase of the red- 

 herring trade, and the improvements in that branch of 

 cure to which the branding regulations do not extend, 

 and which is conducted on the ordinary principles of com- 

 petition, without the artificial aid of the Government ofiicer, 

 as a fair illustration of the result of placing the white- 

 herring trade on the like footing. 



" On the other hand, I feel bound to state, that a very 

 large majority of curers, measured both in number and 

 in amount of herrings branded by them, are decidedly 

 favourable to the continuance of the brand, as compared 

 with those who have expressed unfavourable opinions. 

 Of those whom I orally examined, Messrs Methuen, 

 Simpson, Kobertson, and others, brand amongst them up- 

 wards of 50,000 barrels of herrings out of the total brand 

 of 148,000 ; and amongst the replies from the fish-curers 

 to whom my printed queries were sent, those who urged 

 the continuance of the brand (not including- the parties 



