Newfoundland in 1897 - Rumbolt

122 NEWFOUNDLAND :
and become one of the valuable resources of the
country.
THE LOBSTER FISHERY.
The lobster fishery has expanded greatly during the
last fifteen or twenty years. It now gives employment
to 4000 persons, and is valued at $600,000 per annum.
The Fisheries Board have been for six years carrying
on the artificial propagation of lobsters at seventy
different stations on the shores of the great bays, and
with excellent results. The immense number of
450,000,000 of lobster ova are hatched artificially every
year and planted in the waters. The fishery
is also
placed under strict regulations.
These fisheries, then, constitute another, and at
present by far the most valuable of the resources of
the country. These " "
silvery quarries of the sea
are inexhaustible. They are now worth $7,000,000 ;
but it is not too much to say that their value might
readily be increased to $12,000,000 annually, if science
were brought to bear more completely on their manage-
ment, and capital and enterprise were more fully
directed to their development and improvement. Anti-
quated methods, that have retarded the advance of the
fisheries, must be abandoned. The " supplying," or
" truck system," has got its death-blow ; but it is yet
far from dead. It must be rooted out before any
substantial progress can be made. The altered con-
ditions of modern days must be more clearly realized
by those whose capital is embarked in the fisheries ;
and they must gird themselves to meet the keen