LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 484, 30 March 1869, Page 3

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir, —The dog in the manger fable is so familiar to us all that I shall take up no more space in referring to it, but merely tell you that I had an idea of entering into a speculation " to develope an industry " that I think would prove highly remunerative, but circumstances will prevent me from doing so. I therefore give it to you with the hope that some one else may be induced to take up the idea, and, if they do and carry it out, I have no doubt but that they will find it, as I say, " a profitable spec." It is that of preserving fish for export. I refer to two kinds of fish ; that is to say, whitebait and eels. I devoted two weeks during the last whitebait season in order to discover something of their habits, and be enabled to form some estimate of the quantity that may be procured in a season. I find that, from September to Christmas, they can be caught in large quantities. I have no hesitation in stating that between the periods named ten tons may be procured in the Buller alone. No casual observer can form an idea of the quantity of these tiny, though delicious, fish that pass up the river every day during the season. I have no doubt that a ready market would be found in Melbourne and Sydney, where this delicacy is un-

known. My plan is to preserve them in tins, similar to the method in which salmon, lobsters, &c, are preserved. I see the Victorian Ministers have their whitebait dinners now. I suppose they call them so, because there are no whitebait there. But the genuine article, although in a preserved state, would command a good price on these occasions, as well as at the clubs and large ho*els. Then there are the Buller eels, which are decidedly the finest I ever saw, not only with regard to their size, but in delicacy of flavor. There is certainly none in Victoria that can compare with them, and there is as much difference between these and the English eels as there is between a sole and a flounder. I have no idea of the ■ quantity of these that may be procured during the eight months of tbo year in which they may be caught in the river. The quantity would be very large, certainly not less than that I have set down for whitebait—viz., ten tons—so that we have (according to my estimate) twenty tons of not only good and wholesome, but delicate and valuable food, unlooked after and consequently undeveloped, which, if made available would enrich the community —putting the produce down at sixpence for pound—to the extent of eleven hundred and twenty pounds sterling. There are other natural productions on this coast that may in a similar way be made available, but this one I have selected because I understand it best. At another time I shall be able to point out two or three other matters of a kindred sort that will, I am sure, be worthy the consideration of the industrious and persevering colonists. It is an axiom laid down by political economists "That the man who by his own labor produces a dozen cabbages, contributes more to the commonwealth than the merchant who buys and sells a cargo of tea, although in point of magnitude there is no comparison in the two transactions." The one produces and is paid for his labor, while the other obtains his profit by a mere mercantile transaction by which the community is in no wise benefited. Nothing tends so much to enrich a people as the production of goods for sale and consumption. The West Coast up to the present time has produced nothing for export but the one article—" gold ;" and although it is proved beyond doubt that other metals exist, which may be at no distant period worked profitably, and form a considerable portion of our exports, yet it behoves us to avail ourselves of every possible means to discover and make available any resources we may possess, the development of which would tend to enrich the community at large.—l am yours, <fec, Native Industry. Westport, March 22.