Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (IA mobot31753002848262).pdf/10

 Malayan Fishes

INTRODUCTION.

"Fish is not a luxury, but an absolute necessary of life, with a rice-eating population."

"It is obvious that in order to secure an adequate and plentiful supply of fish, especially to large cities like Calcutta we must go further out into the deep sea—which, after all, is the largest repository of piscine wealth facts and figures relating to the sea-fisheries of Great Britain, the United States and Canada ought to open our eyes to the great possibilities which lie before us."

"In Bengal, Government will have to do a great deal more; it will have to create and build up the sea-fishing industry, with the object of handing it, let us hope at no distant date, to private enterprise.

"It will also be necessary to show the best way of working the estuarine fisheries by improved methods of capture and of bringing the catches expeditiously to market in a sound state."

"I appeal-to the whole population of these Islands, a maritime people who owe everything to the sea. I urge them to become better informed in regard to our national sea-fisheries and take a more enlightened interest in the basal principles that underlie a rational regulation and exploitation of these important industries. National efficiency depends to a very great extent upon the degree in which scientific results and methods are appreciated by the people and scientific investigation is promoted by the Government and other administrative authorities. The principles and discoveries of science apply to aquiculture [sic] no less than to agriculture. To increase the harvest of the sea the fisheries must be continuously investigated"

"In no other section of our food supply could the application of capital to a comparatively small amount mean so considerable a development Both as regards railway and cold storage facilities the fish trade is in its infancy Transportation—cheap and rapid, must be provided by the State-fish trains should have precedence—and rates should be very low, even to the extent of entailing considerable loss."