Fishery Board for Scotland, 



xxvii 



vided by them, or for which they are responsible. In 1884-5 some 

 further improvements were made on the harbour of St Monance, 

 at an expense of about £2000 — of which £500 was raised in the 

 locality, and the balance defrayed by this Board. 



The proposed measure would enable fishermen, resident in the 

 locality, to dispense with the voluntary committee by creating 

 from amongst themselves a body possessing corporate privileges, 

 which could act under the advice of this Board as the central Benefits which 

 Authority. The harbour being no longer dependent on a purely Jeriledfrom 

 voluntary assessment, the revenue, for a term of years, could be proposed 

 calculated with reasonable certainty, and on the security thereof it Measure - 

 would be possible to borrow. Thus the locality would be enabled 

 to provide itself with suitable harbour accommodation, without 

 being in any way dependent on public grants, which necessarily 

 inadequate at all times, sometimes retard rather than promote 

 public effort by giving rise to hopes, often in the end disappointed, 

 and which, moreover, as a gratuitous application of public money, 

 are, on sound principles of public finance, not altogether free from 

 doubt. It is evident also that the system proposed is capable 

 of being made to embrace other matters in which fishermen have a 

 special interest. 



TELEGRAPHIC EXTENSION TO EEMOTE FISHERY 

 DISTRICTS. 



We are again able to report most favourably of the benefits Benefits of 

 conferred upon the sea fisheries by the extension of telegraphic ExtenTionT 

 communication to the remote districts of Castle Bay, in the Island 

 of Barra ; St Mary's, Burra, and St. Margaret's Hope, in Orkney ; 

 and Reawick and Vaila Sound (Walls) in Shetland, referred to in 

 the Board's last Report, which are each year becoming more 

 apparent. 



The extension to Barra has not only been of great advantage to Extension to 

 the fishing community, but also to the inhabitants generally. That advlntagfto* 

 island has been the seat of a most prosperous herring fishery for Fishing Com- 

 many years, and the herrings landed there have long been justly cele- to^nhabitlmts 

 brated for their high quality both in this country and on the generally.' 

 Continent. Previous to the establishment of telegraphic com- 

 munication, curers and fishermen, owing to the remote situation of 

 the island, and to the want of suitable postal arrangements, laboured 

 under great disadvantages in prosecuting their trade, especially 

 with foreign countries. Now, however, these drawbacks have to a 

 large extent been overcome. The greater part of the herrings cured 

 at the different stations are shipped direct for the Russian and 

 German markets. The annual export to these places usually 

 amounts to about 30,000 barrels, and it is of primary importance Particulars 

 to the consigners that they should get early information as to the thereof - 

 state of the different foreign markets, both with regard to the 

 current prices and the stocks of herrings on hand, so that they may 

 be able to judge as to what ports they can most advantageously 

 send their consignments. This knowledge they have now the means 

 of at once obtaining. Further, when the fishing turns out more 

 productive than was anticipated, the curers can bring to the spot 



