The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-30 00:00:00

Til.goToll FISHERIES

- The Dutch Government, it would appear, are begin-
ning to be t!erionsly alarmed at the decline of their deep
sea fisheries; The Bolgians, a 4 we have-already-shown,
Are making vigorous efforts to regain their lost ground,
and, while a healthful competition is in progress for the
development of our fisheries, we may note their rise and
progress, and thus aid the projects now in band, and in-
quiries now being made, to improve the value of our
ocean Mines:

The Dutch, so long ago as the year 1650, bad 5,000
" busses," or large decked fishing loggers. on the east
coast of Scotland ; they were manned by 50,000 fisher-
men, and from this source 'the Dutch navy, so long the
moat formidable on the North Sea, was chiefly manned.
The north-east coast of Scotland was chiefly the locality
of the Dutch fisheries, and here they had to compete
with the Norse fishers, who had possession of the Ork-
ney and Shetland Islands, and a great part of the Caith-
ness coast, the creeks and harbours in which were used
for the coast fisheries, while the larger ve-,sels kept the
sea. Hence such local names as " Stax-igaa" and
" Whalligoe," so common on the Caithness coast, and
that mixture of the Norse, the Dutch, and the Celtic,
evident a characteristic of the hardy and enterprising
race who occupy the fishing stations to the present day.
About the close of the 15th century several efforts
were made to establish national -fishery in Scotland.
A company was .formed, with Royalty for its patron, and
embracing nearly all the landed proprietors and gentry
of the north. Fishing craft and nets were procured from
Holland, Dutch fishermen were engaged, and all was in
fair train, when, war breaking out between France,
Denmark, and Holldnd, the French seized everything
that was of Dutch manufacture, and terns the enterprise
was stopped. Soon after another effort was made which
was more --successful, but the Dutch, by their superior
cure, were enabled to secure a preference in the markets,
and for many years the Scottish fisheries had an unequal
struggle. Stimulated by Government, not a few men of
capital, however, embarked in the trade, and, receiving
large bounties for exported herrings and codfish, the
fisheries were prosecuted with vigour, and have continued
a source of national wealth to the present day. The
bounty system has long ceased, private enterprise bas
taken the place of public benefactions, and the trade was
never more prosperous than it is at the present moment.
In these circumstances the question has been raised
whether or not, the Board of Fisheries should be retained.
The cost amounts to something like 15,0001. a year, of
which sum a very large proportion goes b keep up an
official staff in Edinburgh. The establishment there is
chiefly engaged in putting the returns supplied by their
officers into shape, 90 as to have a yearly report, the
statistics of which are deemed necessary for the benefit
of the trade. The practical work is done by resident offi-
cers, whose duty it is to see that the cure is good, and
to brand with the Crown iron the herrings presented by
the curer when certifiedto be up to the standard required.
In 10 sessions the vote has been objected to, and was
only passed last year on condition that a commission
should be appointed to visit the localities where the
curers resided, and take evidence as to the efficiency and
desirableness of the brand, or the reverse. That corn-
mission has just closed its labours, and on its report the
fate of the board will depend.

Cimplaints having been made that the inquiry haa been
too hurriedly conducted and too superficially made, we
have been at pains to ascertain the real feeling of the
parties chitty interett ad in the various towns where the
fish aro cured, and now submit the result.

1. The foreign merchants this year in the herring mar-
kets are all of opinion that the brand should be continued.
They state that it affords a guarantee by which they are
enabled to sell the cured fish in confidence, and that if
there were no brand there would be great inconvenience
to say the least, in examining, the fish; to ascertain the
quality of the cure. Mr. Welman, of Stettin, who has
long been the principal buyer for the German markets, is
strongly of opinion that the brand should be continued.
2. A very decided majority of the curers are in favour
of the brand, but they will not pay a fee for it, as has
been suggested by Government. They hold that this
would interfere with the independence of the official in-
spection, and argue that, as the cost of production is al-
ready too large for such a necessary commodity, it would
never do to increase that cost. Besides, it would be ma-
. .

nifestly unfair to charge a general fee, as has been sug-
gested, the export herring only requiring the brand, and
although the number of exports has greatly increased the
total amount raised by fee would not compensate for the
necessary, expense of keeping up the establishment.
3. A very intelligent minority of curers think that the
brand is positively injurious to the trade. They argue
thus :—Here are two parade of cured herrings ; one
parcel has been prepared with peculiar care, and are of a
very superior quality. The other parcel has been care-
lessly cured, and yet present no such defects as would
warrant the officer of the fishery to reject them when pre-
sented for the brand. Both parcels being branded the
price is the same, or, if the first curer should attempt
to sell his herrings without the brand he would not be
able to get such a price as the second for any foreign
market. Here, then, they say, is a manifest iujastice
and injury. They wish the trade to be free altogether,
and maintain that although at first there would be some
inconvenience felt, yet if each curer had a prominent and
distinctive brand with his own name and quality, the
best cure would soon be identified, and that brand would
command a preference.
4. A strong feeling prevails that the board at present
is not managed so as to be worth the cost of it, and they
suggest that there should be more attention paid to this
point than to almost any other of the Government inquiry.
G. Tv..

early is much complained of. At present the tables pub-
lished by the board are of no use to the curer. It is pro-
posed that the board should collect the statistics weekly
and publish them in all the principal ports at the offices
of she board, or otherwise to keep the trade informed
with a view to regulate sales. The officers at present do
collect the returns weekly, but the board only publishes
them once a year, and that only about nine months
after the fishing has closed. The returns are furnished
to local newspapers when applied for ; but, while great
care is evidently taken in the Wick papers to have them
correctly given, there is no official warrant to give them
marketable value.

O. There is but one feeling at all the stations in regard
to the necessity of improving the harbours and main-
taining them on the coast. That this should be to some
extent, at least, a local charge, is admitted ; but, seeing
that the Government has always recognised the necessity
of giving public aid so to secure good roadsteads
and harbours, it is felt that the creeks and harbours of
the fisheries ought to continue to be supported.
7. A very strong wish has been expressed by some of
the curers to have the advantage of a steamer on each of
the principal coast fisheries in the fishing season to look
out for shoals before they come to land, and give intima-
tion of their approach, that time might be saved in get-
ting to the right fishing ground.
8 The grounds o❑ which the board rests its case, in
as fur as regards the fisheries b,..ing a nursery for seamen
for the navy, are generally held to be altogether unten-
able. Instead of furnishing seamen for the navy during
the late war, it was with difficulty that coast volunteers
c :uld be raised ; but it is felt that if the board were to
identify itself more with the fishermen, and take an
interest in their social welfare, there would be good rea•
son to expect that a coast defence might always be
counted on from among those men.
9. Upon the whole, the impression is very general
that the vote should be continued under a new organi3a-
Lion of the board, which would provide for such an
application of the funds as would insure encouragement
to the trade. Tiii4, so far as we can gather the feeling
of the parties interested, is the true state of the case.

WICK, SEPT; 19.

The BAgian Government is at present engaged with
a series of important scientific inquiries, with a view to
a vigorous prosecution of the deep sea fishery on the
east coast of Scotland. By the laws of the British fisheries
foreigners :ire prevented from fishing within a league of
the shore; measured from headland to headland, which
leaves the deep water and all the bays and creeks of
the coast open to British fishermen within this limit.
The coast fishermen have thus the advantage of prose-
cuting a fishery for herrings on the spawning-ground,
which is generally the most lucratise, although the fish
are not always of the best quality when found so far in
shore.

The Belgian Government, being thus shut up to the
deep sea fishery, have hal it suggested to them that the
herring i+ a fish with local instincts, and may therefore
he found in shoals iu tracks leading to the .coast where
the sea bottom affords pro eceien to their spawn. To
ascertain this is the chief object of the present inquiry,
because if their general haunts can be traced, and the
time at which the fish usually leave them fur the shore
ascertained, it is-thou, ht that the Belgian fishing vessels
may he directed to the main bodies of the fish, and
there with cop sea nets they may secure a supply be-
fore the one t fishermen can get at them.
\\+ ith this view the Atalanta war schooner has been on
the east coast of Scotland during the fishing teas n, and
while protecting the Belgian craft, officers have
been engaged in making a survey of the British coast
fishing grnueds, in order to prepare a map of the herring
haunts. fio-y have inquired into the natural history of
the field, they have taken the temperature of the sea at
different depths, and conducted a number of rneteorolo
gical ohservaions ; they have ascertained the sets and
currents of the tides, and how they. affect -the herrings.
Toe officers engaged in this inquiry are connected wall
the Royal Institute of Meteorology, and they have col-
lected a body of facts-which it is believed may have an
import ant bearing on the British fisheries.
Should the results enable the Belgian Government to
determine the tracks of the herrings,- it is intended. to
send a few steamers to the east coast of Scotland to
' search out shoals of fish, and then inform the nearest of
the Belgian coats on the coast of them, that they may
fish there. A case happened the other week which shows
the practiere, value of this projact. The officers of the
Atalanta in pursuing their inquiries off the Orkney
Islands f--fl in with a shoal of herrings; information wa-
4-psedily cenununicated to ties nearest Belgian boat on
the coast, the fishermen in which proceeded to the spot
where the li Jr were seen, and, at their firs-, haul, their
deep sea nets got 60 l arrels of fish of the finest quality.
It is inferred from this fact that if the Government
and the private fishermen go Laid in hand together, in
the course of a season many thousands of barrels
of herrings may be taken from the main bodies
before they reach the coast, and thus the coast fisheries
may come to be to some extent anticipated. It is obvious,
=,'.e°, that v. tth such a machinery as this the officers of
,the steamers may ;,o to the coact at any time, and, ascer-
taieieg the state of the fishihg,s. at the principal stattens,
such as Wick, regulate their supplies of the markets ac-
cording as the coast fisheries are prosperous, or the re-
verse.

Now, in view of such facts as these, it is suggested by
those who aro practically engaged in the British fisheries
that they should have the use of a Government steamer
or two, to enable the fishermen to know where the filch

*The total expenditure for the year ending March 31,
1856, was 91,224,041/. 17s. 9d.—Extract from Finance Ac-
counts, No. 252. 11. L, Morgan's Financial Statistics.