The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-04 00:00:00

ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE BRITISH ,
FISHERIES COMMISSIONERS.

The annual reports of the British Fisheries
Commissioners are seldom destitute of general in-
terest. Even in the most sleepy times of peace,
the condition of this branch of industry is felt to
be of greater importance than is implied in the
mere commercial value of its produce; for, in the
hardy race which earns its livelihood off the
weather-beaten coasts of the Orkneys and Shetlands
the nation expects to find many a supporter of its
naval supremacy. But when, after forty years of
repose, our fleets are once more sent forth against
an enemy, the yearly account of this little mari-
time nursery of ours will naturally be read with
more than ordinary interest. And it is agreeable
to learn that it is in a healthy and flourishing state.
From the report for 1853, which is confined to the
fishing stations of Scotland and the Isle of Man, it
appears that upwards of 70,000 persons were em-
ployed during the past year in the herring, cod,
and ling fisheries. Of these, some 29,000 were
engaged in curing and packing the fish, while the
remainder-41,000 men and boys—manned the
11,000 boats in which they were caught. The ton-
nage of the fishing boats amounted to 74,700 tons,
and, for the benefit of those who delight in statis-
tics, we may add that the number of square yards
of netting was 82,000,000, and the number of
linear yards of fishing line exceeded 29,000,000.
Most of these figures, it is true, show a slight de-
crease upon those of the preceding year. The total
number of persons employed, indeed, is larger by
84 than it was in the preceding year, but the num-
ber of fishermen has decreased by 142, and that of
the boats by 36. The tonnage of the latter, also,
is less than it was in 1852 by some 1,500 tons, and
the netting has diminished by a couple of million
of square yards, as well as the fishing lines by
half a million of linear ones. With respect to
the men, the attractions of the golden shores of the
Antipodes account in some measure for the di-
minution of their numbers. It is said that many
of them have emigrated to Australia, not for the
purpose of digging for gold, but with the view of
supplying the fresh-water " navigators" who fol-
low that pursuit with the fish that abounds in the
Australian waters. The reduction in the number
of boats and implements used for fishing is a natural
concomitant of that of the persons engaged in the
business ; but here the diminution in quantity is
compensated by improvement in quality. The
value of the vessels and other articles used last
year shows an increase of 11,0001. over the pre-
ceding year.
Such having been the personnel and the materiel
of our northern fisheries in 1853, let us see what
sport our Celtic and Scandinavian countrymen had
on,those tempestuous seas which wash the northern
extremity of this island. The Commissioners in-
form us that the catch of herrings in 1853 nearly
equalled " the great fishing of 1849," the highest
hitherto reached. The number of barrels in the one
year was 942,000, and in the other 908,000. The
quantities cured,however, as well as those exported,
were greater in 1853 than in 1849 ; the total number
cured in the earlier year—including the produce of
some English stations—being 770,000 barrels,while
in 1853 it exceeded, in Scotland and the Isle of
Man alone, 778,000 barrels. The exports were
340,000 barrels in the former, and nearly 343,000
in the latter year. This, the Commissioners ob-
serve, is the largest exportation ever made by Great
Britain. Compared with the figures furnished by
the precedinc, year, the results of last year's fishing
appear to still greater advantage. Not only did
the number of barrels cured, branded, and ex-
ported in 1853 considerably exceed that of 1852,
but the gross catch was greater by one-third—the
excess in 1853 amounting to upwards of 300,000
barrels. The account of the cod and ling fishery
is also satisfactory. Although described as of a
much more stationary character than the herring
fishery, it may fairly claim to be called progres-
sive, since the quantity cured and dried last year
was the greatest on record. _

The history of the Scotch herring fishery has,
for a century past, furnished many a useful hint
to the science of political economy. Adam Smith
complained that the statesmen of his day had de-
stroyed the boat fisheries of the country by a per-
nicious system of bounties. The bounty being
measured by the tonnage of the vessel employed,
and not by the quantity of fish taken, " busses"
or decked vessels of from twenty to eighty tons
burden were equipped for the herring fishery, and
backed by the Government bounty easily undersold
the boat fishermen. One consequence of this system
was, that "the boat fishery, which before the esta-
blishment of the buss bounty was very considerable,
and is said to have employed a nnan.berof seamen not
inferior to what the buss fishery' employed in the
time of Adam Smith, had then "gone alniost en-
tirely to decay." Another result was, that vessels
were sometimes fitted out " for the solo purpose
of catching, not the fish, but the bounty ;" and to
such a pitch was this abuse carried, that a ton-
nage bounty of 501. was found to be equivalent to
the almost incredible sum of 1591. upon each barrel
of merchantable herrings actually caught. A third
consequence—less strange, indeed, to us than to a
generation unfamiliar with the leading truths of
economical science—was that the " buss" fishery,
notwithstanding the enormous bribe thus paid for
the encouragement of it, gradually declined. In
1803, it had sunk to a very low ebb. "It seems,"
says the author of an essay quoted by the Commis-
sioners, " more than ever to have got out of our
hands, and to be on the eve of its final departure
from Britain." It was, in truth, as the Commis-
sioners observe, " in a state of inanition, and at
the point of extinction." Its impending fate at
last called the attention of Parliament to the impo-
hey, if not of bounties in general, at least
of the principle on which the one in question
was dispensed. Accordingly, in 1809, the bounty
was regulated, no longer by the tonnage of the
vessel, but by the quantity of fish caught. Two
shillings per barrel were paid until 1815, when
the bounty was doubled. This lasted until
1826, about which time it was reduced to one
shilling, and in 1830 it was finally abolished. The
alteration of the system proved quickly beneficial,
and the subsequent reductions and final repeal of
the bounty were followed by similar results. The
quantity of herrings now taken is eight times, and
the quantity exported ten times, greater than it
was in 1809 ; while both the catch and the export
are at least twice as large as they were between
1815 and 1830. Last year, the number of barrels
of herrings exported " exceeded," says the Com-
missioners, "by nearly 48,000 barrels the greatest
export of those years when there was a bounty
of 4s. per barrel, and when there was a large
West India market, now nearly extinct."

The gain, however, as well as the loss of markets
must be included among the vicissitudes of the
herring fishery, and the Commissioners mention
a recent acquisition of this kind which should not
be passed over. The supply of 1849 appears to
have so considerably exceeded the ordinary de-
mand that the superfluous fish were carried in large
quantities to the Baltic ports, from which they
penetrated into Polish Prussia, where Scotch
herrings had before been unknown. Their low price 1
at once procured them customers, who found them
so superior in cure and flavour to the " coarse Nor-
wegian herrings," to which they had been accus-
tomed, that the demand for them has continued
down to the present time. Much improvement,
however, both in the means of communication and
in the commercial policy of Continental nations, (
will be needed before our fishermen can obtain
any great extension of their markets. They have
still to struggle against the hostile tariffs of an
ignorant and selfish Statecraft, and until these shall
have been remodelled by common sense and sound
Science/ they have but little prospect of adding
largely to t
to
he number of their customers.
It is not be expected that a body .of 40,000
men, pursuing in 10,000 boats a common prey,
should not occasionally substitute the primitive
"law of the strongest"
in
a for the more artificial
polity which pre
well-ordered communities.
sEaraveenvillaamogneg tibteie
notti s of the same county or the
natives
ea the supremacy of
but the difficulty of insuringalways easy to avoid strife ;
much
" law and order" is
different blood and different languageilced when men of
collision. This has unfortunately come into
be the case in our northern fisher been found to
and English ships employed iness.o The French
them have not always been able to I)erintending
prevent out-
rages or to discover the perpetrators. The French
fishermen, in the course of 1853, sometime
in-
truded within our limits. On the other an
" cases of great misconduct and of violent usag'e
occurred on the part of the British," and the
French commodore had to urge many complaints
against our crews, which were but too often well
founded. It is to be hoped that the ties of cordial
friendship which now happily unite the two nations
will improve the state of feeling between the fisher-
men of both, or that these men will, at all events,
learn from experience the lesson which the Com-
missioners would inculcate, that " the best po-
licy for both is- forbearance." Disputes be-
tween our own fishermen and the masters of
the fishing-vessels appear by no moans unfrequent.
They are attributed very much to the practice of
solemnising their bargains, not with the Norman
seal, nor yet with the Anglo-Saxon•
signature, but
with the Scandinavian
or Celtic libation of whisky,
"by which,"
quently happens that neither
Commissioners, "it fre-
well what was
intended or what was settled, and
hence angry quarrels
the disputants refer theirellsue." If they are
wise,
but the description of differences to arbitration ;
count of the thispoetic justice
proceeding, and the ac- !
Jll5/1" which cvertakes the I