148 NEW SOUTH WALES 
describing its various appearances in Port Phillip, says :—‘“ After 
remaining for a few weeks they disappeared, until the same time in 
1866, when they arrived in such countless thousands that carts were 
filled with them by simply dipping them out of the sea with large 
baskets. Hundreds of tons were sent up the country to the inland 
markets, and through the city for séveral weeks they were sold for a 
few pence the bucketful, while the captains of the ships entering the bay 
reported having passed through closely packed shoals of them for miles.” 
This fish is salted and smoked in some: parts of New Zealand, and 
the highest award of excellence was adjudged a few days ago at the 
International Exhibition in the Garden Palace to the Picton bloaters 
prepared from this very fish. No attempt has been made in this Colony 
at any time we believe to make any use of this fish, and yet there are 
none which would yield to a little enterprise a more certain return. 
Even for oil and manure it would pay well to fish for them on a large 
scale. The “menhado” (also a kind of herring) fishery, on the coast of 
Maine, which is conducted solely for the production of oil,was valued 
in 1873 at £325,000, of which £200,000 was derived from the oil and 
£125,000 from manure. But the “maray” seems fitted for a. higher 
destiny than oil or manure,—the size, quality, and delicacy of this fish 
point it out as a worthy substitute for the sardine. The process of 
preserving fish in this way is very simple, and is thus described by Mr. 
Simmonds, in the “Commercial Products of the Sea,” in his chapter on 
the sardine fishery of the Mediterranean :—“ Brought to land they are 
immediately offered for sale, as if staler by a few hours they become 
seriously deteriorated in value, no first-class manufacturer coming to 
buy such. They are sold by the thousand; the curer employs large 
numbers of women, who cut off the heads of the fish, wash and salt 
them. The fish are then. dipped into boiling oil for a few minutes, 
arranged in various sized tin boxes filled up with the finest olive oil, 
soldered down and placed in boiling water for some time to test the 
boxes, those which leak being put aside. It does not always seem to be 
remembered that the longer the tin is kept unopened the more mellow 
do the fish become, and if properly prepared, age improves them, as it 
does good wine ; but if they are too salt ati first, age does not benefit 
them—they always remain tough.” The value of the sardine trade to 
France is about £700,000 per annum. 
The maray must be caught in the open sea, as it does not, except by 
accident, enter our harbours. The fishing will require therefore to be 
conducted with drift nets, such as are used for herrings in the North of 
Scotland, or better still, by the purse seine, described on previous page. 
The approach of the shoals from the south should in this case, as with 
the mullet, be watched and signalled. 
There are other herrings on the coast capable of being utilized to an 
equal or even greater extent than the “maray,” but the processes of 
catching and curing would be the same. 
The mackerel visits our shores at intervals in very large shoals, so 
does the “tailor” and a host of other fishes, all of which may ultimately 
become special and important fisheries, for salting or other purposes, but 
at present the development of the most obviously useful kinds is all that 
can well be attended to. 
