NEGLECTED FOOD SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 15, 18 July 1923, Page 4

NEGLECTED FOOD SUPPLIES

It must be a source of surprise to people familiar with the great fishing industries of the Old World that New Zealand has done so little in exploiting this source of food supply.- We have been assured that there are, inexhaustible supplies of fish in the seas round this Dominion, yet fish as an article of diet is almost a luxury. The local market is starved, and there is no export worth mentioning. In commenting recently upon an article by •the Hon. G. M. Thomson ' m the Dunedin "Star," we suggested that here would be a profitable field for State inquiry, not with ■a' view to Government entry into the fishing business, but so as. to devise suitable ' methods for encouraging and aiding private enterprise. Information, advice, and cheap money have proved their' worth, as means of State aid in establishing the great primary industries of the land, and we see no objection to the "application of similar methods in developing the fishing industry. In 1919 .a Fishing Industry Promotion Act was placed upon 'the Statute Book, and that appears to have been the end ,of it. Under its provisipns small sums have been advanced to persons engaged in the fishing industry, but there Has -been no marked development. Fish is as expensive as ever it was, and the supply appears, to be no better. We suggested at. the time that the Minister of Marine should commence by inquiring why 'the provisions of the Fishing Industry Promotion Act had not been more widely availed of, and what had happened to the Fisheries Advisory Board, mentioned but not constituted under the Act. If such inquiries have been made, the public has not been advised of the result. Does-the Government think that the public is not interested— or is it the Government itself ithafc. Jacks interest? Mr. Thomson again drew attention to the importance of the subject in an address to the Rotary Club yesterday. He submitted facts; which we believe have not been questioned,, as to the wealth to. be obtained from the waters. He did not propose that the Government should itself acquire boats and gear;-.and in the light of the failure of. State fishing enterprise elsewhere .we think he was; wise not. to. do so. But he made definite suggestions for fishing development aided by Government research and education. Having studied fisheries, closely, Mr. Thomson is entitled to ' claim respect for, his views, and we hope that the Government will accord them this respect. .As Mr.' Th'oin'-' son showed in his address, the subject is not one to be considered from the industrial viewpoint alone. New Zealand is a maritime country^ and should have its share of sea-going people. .