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of vital importance to retain men acquainted with the fishing grounds, 

 tides, and currents. House them comfortably, and give them the 

 best of rations. Give the single men a comfortable barrack, with a 

 cook to look after it, so that they may always be certain of a com- 

 fortable meal and dry clothes on coming ashore; they will thus secure 

 the willing services of the best men to be had. A company so begun 

 and prudently conducted will, I have no doubt, not only prove most 

 profitable to the parties engaged but to the colony generally. 



It is not the business of the Government to force this or any other 

 industry into existence, but as the fishing grounds are at our doors, 

 most bounteously stocked by nature, while there are both capital and 

 men ready to be employed upon them, it is the legitimate province of 

 the Governments of Victoria and Tasmania to clear the way by a 

 survey of the coasts and straits. Private individuals cannot be 

 expected to spend their capital in making discoveries which at once 

 become public property, as fishing banks inevitably do. Where 

 labour is so high it is of great importance to have the men constantly 

 employed, but until the different banks are laid down they cannot 

 be so. The trawlers cannot work in anything like a heavy sea, but 

 if they knew of a bank in their neighbourhood they could, with the 

 deep-sea line, as long as the vessel could hold her own, actually fill 

 the vessel instead of lying-to idle. The survey of the bank off 

 Tasman's Peninsula alone would well repay the expense of employing 

 a sixty-ton vessel, which would be quite sufficient. There is no doubt 

 that most of the fish come into the bays in summer to spawn, and it 

 is most desirable that both Governments should strictly enforce a close 

 time, and regulate the size of the mesh in all nets, trawlers included, 

 as the wanton destruction now is most sinful. 



1 hope when the Society has the means that the Council will turn 

 their attention to the introduction of the cod and the herring. 

 Lieut. Maury, in his " Physical Geography of the Ocean," mentions 

 that on the portion of the southern states of America touched by 

 the Gulf stream on its way northwards, the fish are of bright colour 

 but poor quality, and that these southern states are supplied by rail 

 from the states further north, whose coasts are washed by the cold 

 current which flows south from the Arctic Ocean inside of the Gulf 

 stream. It appears from Maury's chart of these seas (No. IX. Sea- 

 drift and Whales) that the whole of the south coast of New Holland 

 is bathed by the waters of the cold Antarctic, so that fish of the 

 finest kind will retain their good qualities. The cod is not only a 

 good fish of itself, superior to any of ours, but the salt-fish of 

 commerce, and if established in these seas, would greatly facilitate 

 the formation of an export trade, and, I think, quite as worthy of 

 attention as the salmon. The roe is so exceedingly minute, that 

 more than nine millions have been counted in one fish ; being 

 so fine, it would be laid among the moss in pieces, and one 

 box might contain twelve millions of roe. The sea-water would be 

 sufficiently cold during a great portion of the voyage, certainly after 



