12 THE. president's ADDRESS. 



of the creature to eat that which best supplies its needs. Within 

 the last fifteen years the quantity of fish sent out of Cornwall 

 by rail has increased 80 per cent. There are about 400 boats 

 engaged in the Mackerel Fishery in Cornwall, employing about 

 2,700 men, and the cost of a first-class boat, with nets, is £600, 

 but this fishery was not successful in 1882, and up to within a 

 recent period the quantity of mackerel taken this year has been 

 small. In Pilchards, too, the average exportation of the three 

 preceding years — 12,000, 12,300, and 13,000 hogsheads respect- 

 ively — fell to between 7,000 and 8,000 hogsheads, but the prices 

 were fair, ranging from 55 shillings a hogshead for the summer 

 fish, to 80 shillings for the winter cure. The characteristics, 

 progress, and needs of this industry, have lately been brought 

 into unusual prominence by the great International Fisheries 

 Exhibition at South Kensington, which is daily attracting 

 spectators in thousands to view its wonderful collection of all 

 the appliances used throughout the world in rearing, catching, 

 and utilising every variety of living thing that moves in the 

 waters, besides everything which man's ingenuity has devised for 

 diminishing the risk of a fisherman's life, and promoting his 

 comfort and profit. Cornwall was among the first to take up 

 the invitation of the committee, and I have heard repeated 

 praise of the manner in which our county came forward and 

 supported the proposal. The exhibits from Cornwall included 

 models of Mount's Bay Seine Boats and Drift Boats, Nets of all 

 kinds. Crab Pots, Cured Fish, Improved Anchors and Eopes 

 exhibited by Mr. John Stei)hens, of Falmouth (which have 

 been greatly admired by rope makers and others), including 

 wire ropes which have of late years been used with so much 

 advantage in mines. A beautiful collection of Knitted Frocks 

 in a variety of patterns illustrates the neatness of the Cornish 

 maidens. Would that their handiwork was paid for in a 

 manner more advantageous to themselves and their families than 

 in most instances is the case ; the custom being that they are 

 in most cases paid by those who supplied the wool in goods from 

 their shop, by which the employers made a double profit, while I 

 know that the women and girls often have to sell their goods again 

 at a loss. That this custom should have continued so long seems 

 strange to anyone who remembers that more than half-a-century 

 has elapsed since the Truck Act was passed, and that that Act 



