Il6 FISHING INDUSTRY OF KRIAN AND KURAU, PERAK, 



of the fish is also taken up to Simpang Ampat, Nibong Tebal 

 and Parit Buntar and sold fresh. 



Many of the people here declare the fish is much scarcer 

 than it used to be. Unfortunately the export return for this part 

 of the district throws no light whatever on the subject, for, 

 as I have said, nearly all the fish is taken away (fresh) with- 

 out ever being reported. 



The export account, such as it is, however, is quite untrust- 

 worthy, being kept by careless Malay clerks over whom no 

 supervision seems to have ever been exercised. 



For instance, in glancing through the export account book 

 for 1886, I noticed an entry "4,000 catties of dried prawns, 

 value $40." Knowing that dried prawns are worth about Si o 

 per pikul, I at once brought this to the clerk's notice, 

 and he agreed with me, that it was evidently meant for S400. 

 Thus, in this single instance alone, the return shows only 

 one-tenth the value it should have, and, if this is a fair sample 

 of the way the accounts are kept, they are not much to be 

 depended on. The clerk, however, says this mistake was 

 made by his predecessor. 



The farmer here does not exact one-tenth of the value of 

 the fish taken, as I suppose he is entitled to do. He would need 

 to be a sharp man to collect it from the Jerumal and Blat 

 men, who run their fish over to Penang. 



Penghulu Lebby Lah, who has lived there thirty years, 

 says it is always the same, the fish come and go with the sea- 

 sons (monsoons) ; that many people declare the fish has got 

 scarcer altogether, but that he cannot tell. If they are scarcer, 

 perhaps it is because there are too many people fishing, he 

 says. People come over from Penang and fish here, and there 

 are all our own coast people at work too. 



The Krani tells me that only nineteen licenses to catch 

 fish w 7 ith hook and line (panching) have been taken out. 

 Now, according to Mr. Creagh'S new regulation (marked B, 

 paragraph 2) each person using any other means (besides 

 stakes) of catching fish or prawns is to take out a license, for 

 which he will be charged 60 cents half-yearly. A number of 

 Malays came to me about this when the new 7 regulations were 



