TRUE REFINEMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1935, Page 6

TRUE REFINEMENT

AN ART OF OLD NIPPON NEW WAY TO CATCH HERRINGS. JAPANESE OFFICER’S CUNNING. FISHERMAN AT NEW PLYMOUTH. Battleships, bowler hats and a favourable trade balance have destroyed nothing of the limitless finesse of ancient Nippon—nor blunted the cunning of the Orient. One might be forgiven for considering fishing, more particularly mere fishing from a wharf, as the hobby of the “hpbo’' at heart; a shallow excuse for donning ancient trousers, smoking a pipe forbidden by one’s wife, omitting to shave and sitting all day in the sun thinking of nothing in particular. But even so plebeian and barbarously masculine a pleasure as wharf fishing may assume the proportions and refinements of a philosopher's ritual if only given over to the right hands. It takes modern Japan to show the West what true civilisation is. When the average New Plymouth man pursues the wily fish he takes a lump of very dead liver or whatever part he fancies, jags it on his hook, casts his lead and plays the line over a calloused forefinger. An officer of the Japanese merchant ship Sydney Maru, at present in port, yesterday demonstrated to the barbarians of New Zealand how such things should be dope by gentlemen of refinement. One requires a- 15-inch length of very supple and delicate rod, a spool of catgut line and a small bell. The rod is lashed to a wharf pile so that its tip projects above the decking in full view, the line attached firmly to a plank, threaded through a small “eye” attached to the tip of the rod, hooked, baited and cast in the usual way. To the tip of the rod is also attached a small, delicately-made bell. This simple, delightful device having been assembled, the fisherman sits at leisure contemplating whatever subject may please the mind. He need give no attention to his fishing while it is unsuccessful. That is the most pleasing point of the whole business. But immediately the edible denizen of the deep pays attention to the bait, the hook is jerked, the line becomes taut, the rod bends and vibrates, the bell rings and the fisherman is pleasantly and without undue shock to the nervous system recalled from his philosophies to the more urgent business of hauling in the line with the fish attached (or the bait gone!). Such an undreamed of method called the attention of passers-by on the Moturoa wharf yesterday to the small, neat figure of the Japanese officer who explained the advantages of the method pleasantly when questioned, but otherwise sat in gentle preoccupation watching the ripples, with the corpses of the herrings he had caught reposing in a neat cardboard box beside him. Refinements of Japanese fishing, however, extended further even than an automatic “bite-recorder." When the afternoon sun waxed hot and the philosopher was liable to/be disturbed by discomforts of the flesh, ..a natty steward appeared with a tray on which was borne a tiny teacup and light refreshments. He stood precisely to attention while the fisherman consumed the little repast, and he then disappeared at an equally precise march when his officer was fortified once more to await the signal that heralded , the doom of yet another herring.