TRAWLING. 
385 
Therefore from the foregoing it is evident that generally 
there is no serious falling off in the supply. It is rather the 
distribution which is at present the subject demanding consider- 
ation; for it is one thing to collect the "riches of the deep," but 
another getting them into the towns and villages in all haste and 
good condition, and at little cost, that the people may have a meal 
of fresh, good fish at a reasonable price, and yet leave a fair margin 
of profit for the fisherman. It cannot be denied but that the 
railway has opened up many advantages for fish being distributed in 
all directions, and where there are competing lines many facilities 
are offered to get the traffic in Neptune's host. Yet it is well 
known that the cost is out of all proportion to the worth of the 
fish carried. In hundreds of instances the proceeds of the fish 
are swallowed up by the payment of railway carriage, and nothing, 
or very little, left for the sender, which of course comes back upon 
the catcher, as well as affecting the public, as it checks enterprise, 
and is virtually a tax on the food of the people. I will quote one 
case as showing the extent of the inequality in rates. For carriage 
of a truck of salted herrings from Scarborough to Yarmouth 
weighing 7 tons, £12 8s. lOd. was charged; whereas if the same 
truck with 7 tons of coals was sent from a colliery in Wales to 
Yarmouth £2 10s. 3d. would only be demanded. It is this 
unreasonable excessive charge on transit of fish that is doing vast 
injury to the producer and consumer. When considered from the 
point of view of a food question it is anything but creditable or 
patriotic, and must sooner or later become a matter for serious 
consideration by any British Government worthy of the name. 
Before leaving this part of the question I only wish to say that I 
have seen hundreds of tons of most wholesome fish sold for manure 
when there has been a heavy fishing, simply because the railway 
charges were more than the fish would realize at inland toAvns ; 
whereas if the rates were fifty per cent, less than at present the 
difference would have enabled senders to have forwarded the 
quantities mentioned, and thereby would have been a source of 
revenue to the railway companies, as well as securing a greater 
supply of wholesome food to the people, and benefiting the fisher- 
men in a corresponding degree. 
Going back to the early days of Trawling, it must be noticed 
that it was the custom to fish from Monday to Saturday, coming 
to market every day or two, according to circumstances, and after 
