DEEP-SEA FISHING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9382, 8 March 1898, Page 2

DEEP-SEA FISHING.

TO THE EniTOB.

Sib,— l ye subject in one of yum- mst weens issues should be read by every thoughtful citizen who has the commercial prosperity of the colony at heart. Nothing in this world opened my eyes so thoroughly as to what may be accomplished by perseverance, pluck ai.d daring, as did my short connection with a Deep Sea Fishing and " Trawling Company in Scotland. All of us have heard of " tobacco lords " who flourished in the 18th century, as famous in their day and way for munificent splendour, and the putting on of what modem slang would call " no end of side," as ever was haughty and arrogant, feudal, baren of niedimval times. They were the aristo- ■ craoy of their day, and beneath tbs piazzas that were then before the shops, the " tobacco lords" strutted in the pride of their scarlet cloaks, 'bushy wigs and gold headed canes ; the natural outcome and growth of the tobacco monopoly, Their disappearance was quite as quick as their creation, and when the " War of Independence " broke out in America in 1770, tho " tobacco lords " dissolved like a fragrant puff of smoke ; their mansions passed from them, and they ■ lived only in history— a type of being who had for ever passed away, The trawling industry in Scotlaud, par. ticularly, has raised up another set of men whose rise has been quite as quick and rapid as tho class of men I have described, but a more level-headed people, whose prosperity has come to stay, and who are a strange contrast to the folk who, followed the fashion of the scarlet cloaks and the huge flowing wigs and gold-headed canes a hundred years before. The serious face of the fish-merchant today, clad in the sober broadcloth and glossy pilk hat of a more sombre generation, clearly points to the fact that he knows the s serious nature of his business, and that he is building vp 'a great national industry that will not only bene- ■ lit his own pocket, but benefit thousands and tens of thousands of his fellowcreatures. These are not mere asser- - tions. Last year in Aberdeen alone £11,000 more was got for the fish taken from the sea than in the previous year, and this has been going on and on, an increase being shown every year since deep-sea trawling was commenced there not more than ton years ago by one steamboat. Trawlers are still being built ; the * market increases and increases as the people inland get supplied daily by the f astrunuing trains that carry the fish long distances,^ a short space of time.to their destinations not long after they are caught. . Seven years ago when I was at Home the , cry was that soon fish would almost disappear from the coasts of Scotland, but the fishing grounds off the Island of Buna, and to the west of the Orkney and Shetland Isles seem, according to recent accounts, to supply as many fish as ever, and the '• croakers " who would not take shares in the trawUng companies, because ■ fish wquk} become scarce, still " qrqalj,'! . while more far-qeeing men take, scares, and pocket the dividends, A great future, is before the fishing industry in Sfew Zealand, and that future is coming just as soon as ever tlfe people of the colony are in the mood to cast in their lines and " land " the •' caloh." Just as soon as, we as we are able to supply a cheap aud staple food like fish to our people, which to my mind would be one of the bulwarks ' of the colony's prosperity, so sooc would grow up numerous industries all the outcome of the trade, and there would be effected those numerous structural and harbour improvements in various parts of the colony that would mark ns out as.a real live people who know how to take full .advantage of the good thin« 3 which a wise Providence has endowed our sea and land with— l am etc., "W. K. Howitt, Patea, February 28, 1898.