FISH AND FISHERIES. 137 
and doubtless a little search would discover many such grounds 
between Point Bass and Shoalhaven Bight. The waters of the Shoal- 
haven and Crookhaven abound in the best kind of harbour fish, and the 
whiting are specially excellent ; but here again the want of speedy con- 
veyance to market operates as an effective prohibition against all enter- 
prise. The banks just mentioned cannot, however, long remain in 
their present state of isolation, but must before long be laid under con- 
tribution asa source of supply. The same remark applies to Jervis Bay 
in respect to net fish. Its beaches in extent and productiveness 
are probably unsurpassed by any harbour or inlet on the whole of 
our coast. Whiting are caught in the bay and on the outer 
beaches of Wreck Bight in enormous quantities, and were a short 
time ago, if they are not still, preserved in a dried or salted state by the 
Chinese fishermen. St. George’s Basin, at the southern end of this 
bight, is a vast nursery for mullet, river garfish, bream, and the 
ordinary kinds of net fish, but very few are ever taken. Jervis Bay, 
like Port Stephens, is connected with Sydney by telegraph, and like 
Port Stephens is a safe and convenient harbdur in any weather. Each 
of these stations is distant from Sydney not more than a few hours by 
steam, and the facilities for catching large freights of every kind of 
marketable fish, as well as for curing and utilizing ashore ‘such as may 
be either unsuitable to or in excess of the demand are common to both. 
The telegraph, it is almost needless to point out, would be an invaluable 
guide as to the. state of the metropolitan supply. Here therefore, and 
at Port Stephens, we should expect, in the event of our recommenda- 
tions for the alternate closing of some of the home fisheries being 
adopted, that a large fishing industry will be established and worked in 
connection with steam fishing-vessels of the class. 
(3.) The Outer Grownds.—This section of our sources of supply 
embraces the remainder of our fishing territory, from Cape Hawke to the 
‘Tweed on the north—from Wreck Bight to Twofold Bay on the south. As 
might be anticipated from the remoteness of the fishing-grounds com- 
prised within these limits, they are almost untouched, and indeed almost 
unknown, at all events so far as professional fishermen are concerned. 
The only information about them which we possess comes chiefly 
from coasting mariners and from the pilots or other officers stationed at 
the mouths of the various bar harbours which mark the outlets of such 
rivers as the Tweed, the Richmond and Clarence, the Nambuccra, 
Bellinger, Hastings, Macleay, Manning, Clyde, Moruya; also at Twofold 
Bay, and other points of less importance. From other sources we have 
been furnished with descriptions of such fishing-grounds as our infor- 
mants happened to be familiar with ; and some of your Commissioners 
have themselves been able, from personal knowledge of the localities, to 
confirm or supplement the information so obtained. 
The Solitaries and other rocky islets lying between Trial Bay and the 
mouth of the Clarence enjoy a high reputation for schnappers and other 
valuable kinds of line fish ; and the lower waters of the various rivers 
which enter the sea within this section of our fishing-grounds are known 
to abound, like all other rivers on the coast, with the best descriptione 
of net fish. Similar accounts are given of the outer grounds to the 
southward. In short, it may be said with perfect truth, that the whole 
of these portions of our coast waters are plentifully supplied with fish of 
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