FISH WEALTH AND WASTE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1917, Page 6

FISH WEALTH AND WASTE

One of the recommendations of the ■Chief Inspector of Fisheries (Mr. E. F. Ayson) is that a- bonus should bo paid on fish canned or cured for export; and, incidentally, the Minister of Marine (Hon. G. W. Russell) predicts within five years a heavy export of salmon. These ,apinb»s,^fteoin«gi!ttlw;jhpi^th>t,.-)3o^xifl s ;

the local and the oversea markets, canning will beconw a bigger factor than has hitherto been contemplated. At the same time, curing and chilling will remain, for the bulk of our fish, the best preservative and stabiliser of the market; and it is in this direction that the G^overnment can give the most substantial assistance. That fact has been recognised both by Chief Inspector and byMinister, who will not, we hope, be discouraged by site difficulties, but will pursue the policy lately enunciated of establishing curing and chilling works, either with or without local body assistance. Mr. Ayson's bonus recommendation includes " fertiliser manufactured from fish offal and unmarketable fish." To anyone who .takes the trouble to examine easily ascertained facts about fish-waste—facts repeatedly published in this paper—the above recommendation will readily appeal. It is a waste that private enterprise has hitherto quite failed to eliminate, and yet there is the best of evidence that, given initiative and capital, what is now lost could be made a source of secure profit.