412 HEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [30] 



captures, half the proceeds going to either party; if, however, the take 

 is insigiiificaut, the boat and net owners surrender their share to the 

 fishermen. A like plan obtains at Tellicheri, where the fishermen 

 have framed rules for their own guidance, one of which is the right of 

 the first discoverer, among a lot fishing together, to a school offish; he 

 is allowed to capture them without hindrance from the others, even 

 though at the time when the fish were discovered he was not i^repared 

 to launch his net. Passing out of the districts where the free collection 

 of salt earth is permitted, another change for the worse in the condition 

 of the fisherman is reported. In Madura it is said that, on the whole, 

 the sea fishermen have increased, but that the aboriginal fishing castes 

 have decreased, owing to emigration or to their becoming sailors. At 

 Ootipadaram the native official estimates the daily earnings at three 

 pence, taking all the year round, and excluding costs, and at Munjery 

 at from three halfpence to nine pence, while at Teukarei their earnings 

 are computed at from three pence to one shilling a day. In the Tanjore 

 collectorate they are reported to have decreased in some places, but 

 remained stationary in one locality. A little better report comes from 

 Madras, but there the fishermen are also employed as boatmen, which 

 is verj^ profitable, while the vicinity of large stations affords a sale for 

 fresh fish. Without tracing out the condition of these people in each 

 district on the coast, it will be sufficient to say that they are poor and 

 miserable, but not so badly off as in the Bengal maritime districts, 

 where they appear to be quite poverty-struck. Passing on to Burma, 

 with its cheap salt, we find the sea fishermen well off. 



If we pass in review the reports from all the sea districts, we find 

 the fishermen well of in Sind, while, unless in the vicinity of large 

 towns, they are miserably off in the Bombay Presidency. Along the 

 western coast of Madras, with its iintaxed salt earth, these people pros- 

 per; but once round Cape Comorin, where the collection of spontane- 

 ous salt becomes a penal offense, they become, as observes the collector 

 of Tinnevelli, a very miserable lot of people, and such is the same ac- 

 count all up the Ooromandel coast, except where there are large towns. 

 With poverty we find them reported to be decreasing in numbers, due 

 to cholera or other diseases, emigration, or accepting service as lascars 

 in coasting vessels. These are a people who in olden times were among 

 the most prosperous of the inhabitants along the coasts of India; who, 

 when the Portuguese first landed, were able to bring large armies into 

 the field; whose occupation is now thought unworthy of the care of 

 the legislature, except when it seems possible to impose new taxes on 

 their industry, in the shape of an augmented salt-duty — as a European 

 official remarked, that sympathy ought not to be wasted on fishermen, 

 for they are an independent, careless, and drunken set of men. This 

 gentleman, trained up in the latest school of political economy, I be- 

 lieve, merely placed on record what are the feelings of many who are 

 acquainted with the state of this trade, for by careless and independent 



