The majority of the people of Australia have had but little opportunity of forming an independent idea of the great importance sea fisheries are in other parts of the world. It is hardly realised, for instance, that if the fish supply of Great Britain should be suddenly cut off, the population would be deprived of about 3,000 tons daily of excellent foodstuff, the sudden loss of which would entail great hardship and suffering to hundreds of thousands of people. The calamity would be infinitely greater in countries like Norway and Japan, where a considerable portion of the population is entirely dependent on fish and fisheries for their existence.