THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6421, 16 June 1882, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882.

"We are glad that the Assembly affirmed Mr. Daniel's motion, on Tuesday, on the subject of a training ship, "as it is of the utmost importance that facility should be offered to the rising generation of the colony to be trained to maritime pursuits." There can be no doubt that, if there be proper management, any such arrangements must prove exceedingly useful, for few tastes are more general among boys than a taste for the sea. It is evidenced by the prevalence of aquatic sports among our youth, for besides the disposition being hereditary, local circumstances are in its favour. We are an insular the new country as well as in the old one. The resolution, is excellent so far as it goes, and Mr. Peacock's amendment, "which, however, was not assented to, would *have been an improvement, by making it go further —providing such training ships for the various ports of the colony. But though, institutions of the kind, on a right system, are sure to be serviceable, we apprehend that the only way to develop at an early date anything like a considerable maritime class in a colonial population, is by attention • to the fisheries. The ama.teur taste notwithstanding, we will have no large body of professional sailors of local raising until then. A great industrial opportunity is presented here by the fisheries, but w>3 must have discovered by this time tliat it is not likely to be turned to account if left to isolated effort, and companies ought to be formed for the purpose. Companies are very easily formed among us. They are established for a wide variety of purposes —indeed often on such small occasions as would seem to indicate the want of important fields for capital and enterprise. And yet here is a great field indeed, temptingly waiting to be attended to, but still, as a matter of fact, quite untouched. Our bays and seas teem with fish, and when lately referring to the subject, we cited evidence of the market in town and country which now exists and which will be always spreading and growing with the extension of railways and increase of population.' An International Fisheries Exhibition is to be held next year" in London, and Mr. Whitaker mentioned the other day in the Legislative Council that- the Government will contribute £250, and will receive and forward free all New Zealand exhibits. We are afraid these exhibits will be on such an infantile scale that visitors at the exhibition will hardly credit us with capabilities in this line." Fisli ought to be frequently on our tables, but the difficulty of obtaining it is complained of in Auckland, the supply is always scanty and uncertain. We lately showed from our correspondence in up-country places and from j

local journals tlie " opportunity ::•: ■which exists there, and how eagerly fresh fish is bought up when it happens to be fetched by rare chance and at ') long intervals. On the other hand, * the natural supply is inexhaustible',and there are already facilities of ■■ carriage. But to establish the business • on a regular footing some little organisation is necessary, and fislun°-' boats require to be properly found, and hence the occasion* as well as opportunity for a company, or for single persons with energy and capital to take up the matter. Capital and enterprise are invested in agriculture, why should the riches of the sea continue neglected 1 It is well known that an area of good fishing ground furnishes an infinitely larger amount of food than the same extent of the most fertile and most scientifically cultivated land. An acre of the best tilled land can produce a. ton of corn, or two or

three hundredweight of meat or eheese, once in the year. But every week of the year the same area of good fishing ground yields a greater weight of food. In one night's fishing on the English coast, over an area of fifty acres, five vessels will often bring in seventeen tons of fish, equal in weight to fifty head of cattle or three hundred sheep; and our New Zealand waters are as prolific as the English. Everybody knows how abundant fish is around

our coasts. Here is a mine of wealth at our very doors, ready to be worked ■with very little outlay, but it is ne-

glected. Human nature is prone to "wait for example close at hand, but when once the profits of such en-

terprise were witnessed fisheries -would soon arise all around the New Zealand shores.. Then, and not till then, will we have a large body o£

colonial sailors. It is the training afforded by her fisheries which has lain ab the root of England's naval prowess,, and by her naval prowess her commerce has spread to every sea. Fisheries have been always spoken of as- " the nurseries of navies," rearing men , at the same time skilful and fearlessSome years ago, between SOO and 900. fishing vessels were regularly engaged in supplying the London market, and it was calculated that they provided annually over 80,000 tons of fish, spective of great quantities of herrings sprats, and shell-fish, otherwise furr, nished. At the same period it was.' calculated that 90,000 tons of beef were the yearly consumption of London. At the same time, a - single fishery— the pilchard—on the coast of Cornwall and Devon, employed over 4000 men on the water, and 5000 men and women ashore. As for the great herring fishery, and the others, all round! the shores of the United Kingdom, the. number of men engaged in them is enormous. So in case of need England " can always double her naval strength —can man any increase, however sudden, of her navy. Now, in time oi peace, she has, by last year's estimates, 59,000 men in her nary. In 1810, when the population was aot half what it is at present, her navy had, because it was time of war, 145,000 men. It may be long here before we have to man a navy in the real sense of t'ae word, but with the changes proceeding in this ocean we will have ere long to greatly enlarge our mercantile marine, unless we are to leave the profit of our carrying trade to others, and the" merchantmen of many nations will then be everywhere in the Pacific. Seamen of our own are a requirement of the coining time. It is only by the industrial opportunity of the fisheries that we can create a large class of colonial seamen, and the opportunity is so great, and offers such inducements, that if a beginning were made these would soon be in the natural course of circumstances a large maritime section of our population.