12 



Year. 



Subsidies. 



Tonnage. 



Output. 



1900 



i'rn. 

 33,852 



t07tt. 



1,937 



Yt 

 171,618 



1901 



35,214 



2,114 



167,512 



1902 



30,717 



1,576 



157,846 



1903 



35,002 



2,159 



190,988 



1904 



35,733 



2,204 



276,002 



1905 



47,397 



2,001 



364,269 



1906 



73,037 



3,669 



546,962 



T907 



125,314 



4.487 



400,709 



1908 



123,972 



6,093 



773,254 



Since Japan is surrounded by seas on all quarters, not only 

 were communications among the people most conveniently 

 carried on by means of ships, but fishing is most advantageously 

 effected everywhere in seas, bays, rivers and lakes, and there- 

 fore the Japanese were engaged in fishing from the remote and 

 uncivilized period. It is evident under the circumstances, that 

 ships for fishing purpose were required, but it was not till the 

 later period that the construction of ships varied according to 

 their use, such as fishing boats, lighters, merchantmen etc. In 

 early times rafts answered the purpose both of communication 

 and fishing while at times wood was excavated into a canoe. 

 Transformations of various natures were undergone extending 

 over several hundreds of yeais until by the sheer working of the 

 law of the survival of the fittest, ships of the present type were 

 produced. The tower of fishing boats displayed in the present 

 exhibition depicts various stages of the development of Japanese 

 fishinof boats. 



