of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



65 



company has been formed with a capital of £200,000. Preparations for 

 landing the machinery, &c, have already begun. His Lordship has also 

 formed another company, with a capital of half a million, to purchase 

 trawlers, liners, and drifters, so that the preserving works will not be 

 dependent on casual landings, but will have an independent supply of 

 their own. An ice factory is also to be built. Stores containing goods 

 of all kinds are to be opened for supplying the work people, fishermen, 

 and others with all requirements. One of the tweed mills has been 

 purchased for, it is said, £14.000. It was desired to take over another 

 tweed mill, together with the only boat-repairing slip in Stornoway, 

 but his Lordship failed to negotiate the bargain, the owner not being 

 disposed to sell at the terms offered. The Lewis people were allotted, 

 approximately, 29,000 £1 shares in the companies. Some applicants were 

 disappointed in not getting the full number allotted to them for which 

 they applied. No prospectus was issued in connection with either 

 company. 



Other schemes are contemplated, such as the extension of the existing 

 piers, and the building of new ones capable of accommodating the largest 

 sized cargo vessels. It is also proposed to build harbours at Carloway, 

 Port of Ness, Skigersta, and Portnaguran, linking up these places by 

 •railway with Stornoway. It is understood that Lord Leverhulme intends 

 making application to the Development Commissioners for a loan free of 

 interest, so as to enable him to carry out the proposals. Lord Leverhulme 

 believes that the solution of the Lewis problem lies in industrialism as 

 opposed to crofting. And it is presumed that by putting these schemes 

 into operation he expects that in time the people will leave their patches 

 of land, from which only a bare existence is obtained, to become all-the- 

 y ear -round fishermen or workers in the factories which he is prepared to 

 institute for them. If many of the Lewis people are of the opinion of a 

 man who applied the other day for release from service, it is to be feared 

 his Lordship will find the present generation hard to bring round to his 

 views. The applicant stated that he was drawing for himself, his wife 

 and family nearly £20 per month, but he would much rather do without 

 the money so long as he was his own master. He could do what he liked 

 at home, but he could not do that in the Navy, and no amount of money 

 would induce him to give up his independence. 



Four lives were lost in connection with the fisheries, 3 through the 

 swamping of a small craft at the mouth of Loch Gravir, and the fourth 

 through a man being knocked overboard by sail at the entrance to 

 Stornoway harbour. 



W. M. Wares, 



Fishery Officer. 



Fishery Office, 

 Stornoway, 16^ January 1919. 



Ban a District. 



The fisheries of Barra district for the year 1918 show a decline from 

 the results of the previous year. This decline may be accounted for by 

 the restrictions on the export of cured herrings, which tended to discourage 

 East Coast boats from fishing from Castlebay and also led the best of the 

 local crews to fish from Mallaig, where better prices could be obtained 

 for their catches. The aggregate results for the year amounted to 15,896 

 cwts., valued at £9700, exclusive of shell-fish, compared with 19,980 cwts. 

 valued at £9485 for the year 1917. 



