We know that the sea off the coast of Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan swarms with fish all the year round, and all that is necessary is a scheme for supplying the Western States and the Colony, where fish is now very scarce.
The writer advocates State enterprise in the establishment of cold storage depots on the islands, where there is always safe anchorage and shelter in smooth water.
There is a chain of these islands all the way up the East coast. An island with a cold storage depot will become a permanent fishing settlement. Rent would be paid by the fishermen for space in cold storage, to be collected when the fish is sold. So far State enterprise is advocated.
It would pay steamers, running from Bangkok, Saigon and China to Singapore, Port Swettenham and Penang, to call at these islands for fish, and those steamers not now fitted with refrigerating plant would instal it.
Schemes for ameliorating the lot of the fishermen by granting loans, etc., have not succeeded because no scheme protected the fishermen from the middlemen, but the depots which will be the Penny-banks of the fishermen, always ready to receive deposits, however small, until required, will render the fishermen independent of the middlemen.
For example, there would be nothing to prevent a group of Malay fishermen from consigning regular shipments of fish direct to a Malay retailer in the market.
Shipments would be so frequent that loans should be unnecessary, but allowing that loans were asked for, to start Malays working on a co-operative basis, as indicated above, there would be no risk in advancing money on the security of the stock of fish.
With State organised depots and State transport there would be a fair field for steam trawlers and steam drifters owned by Companies or individuals. The depots would receive the fish and save the trawlers a journey to port with every catch, and here again the middleman would be eliminated.
This work deals, very inadequately, with fishes only. Much could be written and will, no doubt, be written later about our Crabs, Prawns, Crayfish, Pearl oysters, Edible oysters, Scallops, Cockles, Corals and Sponges, but considerations of space prevent more than the briefest mention.
The writer has seen Pearl shell taken close to Singapore and has handled a pearl valued at £800 taken off the Kelantan coast.
Rock oysters grow well here, but as they take about three years to mature, and no native can resist taking them while still small, they are practically unknown in the markets.
Leases could be granted and oysters cultivated. Sponges too, can be cultivated. Commercial sponges can be grown from cut-
