THE FISH MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 183, 4 August 1919, Page 10

THE FISH MARKET.

AN EXPORT RUMOUR DENIED. teg.- . For some time past the supply of fish trawled and caught in the waters round Auckland has been below requirements. The result has been an upward tendency in prices, which a glance in the window of any fish shop will show are at a level to-day that would have been considered impossible for fish food a few years ago. |At the present time the shortage is pretty acute, owing to the effect on the i catches of the heavy seas that have .been I running on the coast. There is an uneasy feeling in the minds of some people, land" which of la.te has found expression jin various rumours, that the shortage of fish food in Auckland is more pronounced than is warranted by the actual supply, the argument ibeing that a quantity of Auckland fish has been exported to Australia. Inquiries made of the big fish supply concerns on the subject, however, produce an emphatic and unanimous denial that there is any export of fish caught in Auckland waters. They declare that the whole of the Auckland catch is wanted locally, even if facilities were afforded to export fish at profitable rates to Sydney. The municipal authorities point out that the City Council's activities as a purveyor of fish are solely for the benefit of the .public of Auckland, in order that the people may be assured of a fish supply at rates which are as low as sound finance dictates. The idea of the municipality exporting fish to Sydney or any other place while the local demand remains unsatisfied is scouted entirely. These assurances that no fresh fish is exported are borne out _y the Customs Department, which states that the only fish exported from Auckland is a very small quantity of smoked fish, so small as to 'be negligible. What, perhaps, has given rise to the . belief that the local market was being kept at a fictitious level by the export lof quantities of fresh fish is the circum- ' stance that on one or two occasions in the past few months fish has been shipped from Auckland to Sydney. This | was not local fish, however, but fish ] which had come down from Vancouver for Sydney, and was unloaded at Auckland, .being later reshipped from the i freezer "here to its destination.