FISH AND FISHERIES. 1389 
CHAPTER XI. 
The Fish Market. 
Tue following particulars are taken from the Commissioners’ report. 
The alterations which have taken place since that time will be referred 
to when dealing with the Fisheries Act, whose provisions can hardly yet 
be said to have come into full operation :— 
The Fish Market of Sydney, to which all fish intended for sale are 
brought, is under the supervision of an Inspector of the Municipality, 
whose duties are to ascertain the fitness for human food of the fish 
brought into the Market, to condemn and cause the instant removal of 
that which is unfit, and to dispose of the remainder by public auction. 
The duties of this officer commence in the summer months at 5, and in 
the winter at 6 a.m. The disposal of the fish by public competition is 
an arrangement made by the Inspector and assented to by the fishermen, 
and appears to be the most desirable mode of dealing with the supply. 
The fish are brought into Market during the night and in the morning 
immediately before the sale. The supplies which are brought from a 
distance in coasting-steamers arrive generally during the night previous 
to the day’s sale. A return, carefully prepared by Mr. Inspector 
Seymour, gives abundant information concerning the sources of supply, 
the varieties and quantities and value of the fish, extending over a period 
of seven years. During the winter months these supplies are enlarged by 
the facilities for bringing in a fit state to market the produce of the 
fisheries of places as distant as Port Stephens to the north and Jervis 
Bay to the south, As no arrangements have ever existed for the 
carriage along our coasts of fish in ice, any distant fishing-grounds are 
during the summer months proportionally valueless for the purposes of 
a supply to the metropolis. Upto a very recent period, no arrange- 
ments had been made for the reception in an ice-house at the Market of 
the fish as they arrived. The consequence of the entire absence of any 
means of preserving the fish after capture until their delivery at the 
Market, and there up to the time of their disposal, was the loss of very 
large quantities of valuable food. The particulars of this loss will be 
found in the return made by Inspector Seymour, to which reference has 
already been made. The result of the non-employment of ice or any 
other means of bringing the fish to Market in a fresh condition, was of 
course to limit the sources of supply to the harbour and to its immediate 
vicinity. It would appear that the Sydney Market is regularly supplied 
in the following way :—There are engaged in fishing in the numerous 
bays of Port Jackson, including the Parramatta River, twenty-seven 
seine-boats, each manned by four men ; and eight boats for line-fishing, 
with crews of about three each. Only one steam-vessel is regularly 
employed in the fishing trade, although in the winter months consider- 
able quantities of fish are brought in the Hunter River and Illawarra 
lines of steamers from Tuggerah, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Port 
Stephens, and other places to the north, and from Wollongong, Shoal- 
haven, and Jervis Bay to the south. The solitary steam-vessel in the 
trade leaves Sydney every Monday morning at 7 o'clock, goes to Broken 
Bay, and returns to the Sydney Market at 5 the next morning, bringing 
