NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14867, 19 December 1911, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE BRITISH HERRING FISHERY. A Yarmouth or Lowestoft fishing steamer costs from £2500 to £3500, and the fishing gear another £1000. There is a curious system of apportioning the profits of the Lowestoft fishing season. They are divided into 23£ shares, the owner of the boat receiving 14| and the crew the rest, in certain' fixed proportions, from If for the master to one-half for the cook. The Yarmouth and Lowestoft fishing season, begins in October and ends about the middle of December, about ten weeks' fishing, during which a boat has been known to earn as much as £2300. Herrings, of course, are caught not only off these two ports, but also off the Shetlands, and the north-east coast of Scotland in spring and summer, and later on at Scarborough and Grimsby; but most aro taken during tho "home fishing" off the east coast of England. Off Inverness, Fraserburgh, Kirkcaldy and other Scotch ports herrings are also caught. At a busy fishing port during the herring season there is no talk of of working only an eight, hours day. Kip-per-girls, gutters, and others often work till midnight. The fish are measured by the "cran," which dispenses with the men who used f to be known as "tellers" or counters. Quarter-cran baskets are generally used, each containing from 250 to 300 fair-sized herrings. Thousands of girls are employed, both in Scotland &nd in England, to "rive" the fish for making bloators, split them for kippering, and gut and prepare them for export. These girls become very quick and expert' at their work, and 'with their sharp little guttingknives can gill and draw a fish at one stroke. It never happens now that an immense catch of herrings can bo sold only for manuring land, for the foreign buyers is present at the Yarmouth and Lowestoft markets during the season, as • well as the British buyer, and what the latter leaves the former generally takes. As recently as 1907, however, when more than 80,000 crans (about 106,986,000 • herrings) were landed in '• one' day at the two east coast ports, a good many could not be sold, but had to be thrown back into the sea. Comparatively few of tho jhaxings caught

however, are sold while fresh, the majority being pickled for - export, preserved or "cured" in one way or another for home use, , . ■ . RAILWAYS AND RUBBER. Many people think that the days of pioneer work are over, but those who read Mr. R. Johnson's account, in the Railway Magazine, of the making of the MadieraMamore railway in Brazil, will see plainly that they are not. ■ The line will be about three hundred miles in length, and its terminus appears to be not very far from the Bolivian frontier. Thus it is in the heart of the great continent. The reason for ] building a railway in such desperately difficult and unhealthy country is, of course, the rubber industry. It is to carry away the product of a vast belt of rubber-pro-ducing land. Moreover, the rubber is the variety known as Para, that is, the best rubber. Taking the price of rubber at its lowest, 3s a pound, the average output of the Amazon Valley is about £12,000,000 a year but the price is often as much as 7s a pound, instead of 3s. Several previous " attempts appear to have been made to construct the Madeira-Mamore railway, but all failed from want of capital. In order to build the line, seventeen camps have been established, one about two hundred miles away in the jungle, near the Bolivian frontier. The writer says: The contractors employ about 500 skilled and 3000 unskilled workers, and the lowest wage is 21s per day, with board, for a white man, and 7fl 3d per day, with board, for a labourer. The monthly pay roll averages about 300,000 dollars gold. Speakihging literally, the climate is deadly. A man may be healthy and strong to-day, and yet buried to-morrow. Deaths average from three to six per day from disease alone, and many more are killed (and probably eaten) by savages when wandering too far into the forest. It is estimated that the railway will cost more money per mile than any in existence, and will certainly involve the sacrifice of more human lives than any other work, not even excepting the early stages of the Panama Canal, which might be regarded as a " convalescent Home" compared to this undertaking.