1. sports
2. fishing

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A..ND
FJC OI£RATB J>
1L~L AY
STA'J' J·)H
ON Till-:
WEST COAST OF THE PE NINSULA .
BY
. R. J . Wr r.KI
ND H.
'0 ,H. BERKE LEY
. ROBINSO .
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1278
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NEGARAMALAYSI
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PUBLISHED
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JB 1278
BY
AUTHORITY ,
KALA LUJIl.l'U K:
AT 'rUE }'SDEl1 IL GOVERNMEN'l' l'RIN 'rlNU
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81704 7 /
- 7 SEP 1995
Perpu st~lca ~o
Ncgaca
}FlC.;,
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REPORl' ON 'fHE FI HING I DUSTlty.
'l'j[J~
memb 1'8 of lIe PI' 'ent ommitteo weI' directed
to llquire into the general oudition of the fi ·harie on
the W t Goa ·t of the Malay Penin ula, Repre entations
bad pl'eviou 1y been mac1e to ovemment :
(1) that fee for license" w re so heavy that the
indu ·try bad been gr atly diwini hed and wa' 110t likely
to reviv unless the fee' w r revised;
(2) that tb \ fees chal'o'ec1 in ,'orne Cel 'e ' (' ,g" upon
lice n os for fi 'bing by hook and line 'wer e unjustifiably
oppre ive in view of the revenue obtainaJ Ie from them;
(3) tbat the rule dealing with fi shing- t.a.kes ,Yel'c
inadequate;
(4) that th pr' hibitiou of t he methods know as
blat I 1lg/l0Ilg, /,'I'inV aml te/ul.; was llnneCeSsal'y.
Til view of the GOY rnment wa. stated to be that
regulation i ' necc ~ aI'Y :
( I ) to pr'vent 1 I'CllChc:; of the peace betw on th
various la. c of fi 'hennen ;
(2) LO prevent tho wa tofu1 de 't l'Llction of fi 'h;
(;3) to ccmo a fair I' venuo in a mannor loa ·t likely
to can e inj n1'y to the in lu 'try, or bar IshiI to the fishilig
population,
In aecOTc1anco with in.'[·rnc tions tho following place ·
wero vi:;it d by tho ~0ll1miLtoe:
1alacca, Port i 'k. ·Oll, 10rib, J ugm, .Port Swettllham, Kuala Sclangor, Pano'kol', Lumnt, Bagan Data' and
'l'eluk An on by tho whol
omm ittc;
P llang by Me 1· ·. ·" ilkin ou and Berkeley;
Province "VellaBley (Butt rwol'th) by MI'. Wilkin 'all;
Kl'ian and Matcmg by Mr, Bel'keley.
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'pecial enquirie:' wero a1 0 maue ~t iOl'ib with l'efe1'ence to the nse of the blat lellgl'u1I.[j, and the entire
catch of one of these traps wa ' twice examined.
'1'he Committee have now to pre 'ent their report on
the various i. ue ~ befol'e them. They attach to this
l'eport three appemlices :
(1) a detailed report by the OhaiL'mall on the various
methods of fishery in use in the lenin ula;
(2) a report by the scientific member of the Oommittee on the fish oxamined by him;
(3) a draft set of rules for regulating the fishing
indu tn' .
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'1'he OOlTlmittee wish to record their indebtedne s to
the officer/:) in chal'ge of the oa t di tricts for information and a"si tance given in the cour 'e of this enquiry,
and to the Resident of 'elangor for the use of the
.r. ' E 'meralda" so kindly 1 laced at theil' h '}Josal.
I.
'I'RE PRESENrr POSITION OF 'rRE FISHING
INDUSTRY,
'1'he fi 'he1'ies oE tho .'ettlcment of .Malacca
are locally estimated to represent an Hll1l1.1al value of
,':)1·- ,000; the rovenue deriv d from them last year only
amounted to ~756. This figme i incitl.Bive of the
revenue from the licen ing of about 1,200 boatti. One
hundred and ten "fi 'hing- take " are found on tho
coatit; but no figures are available to show the llum1el'
of net· or the number of per' ons engaged in the indLlst l'Y.
-i\L'l.LACUA.
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The Oommittee found that many of these Malaccn.
fi8heI'men carryon their work outside the territorial
water of the Settlement. 'l'hey travel to the K egl'i
~embilan, to Selangor and to the umatran coast. It is
Jlotewortby that those who travel to umatea catch fish
there, cure it at some expense, and then sell it in Malaeca
at ]e s than the local price of r,he fre 11 article. 'l'his
'oem' to sugge ,t that the Sumatran ,ratel's are mOl'e
e
of
the
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'ettlcmeut.
The
m;o'l'ations
pl'ocluetive than tllu
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to tll(\ Fec\ E' )'Rt d Mfllny I'tnt . rnny he cll e nrag'E'c1 h,\' tlU'
highcr lwice.' ruling thel'e ; they proyo nothing a. to the
pl'oduch" ene s of wate r ~ , but they certainly show t hat the
F .:M:.S. scale of fees (which the e men have to pay) i.
not I l'ohibitive.
Fi h are not . : old at Malacca by weight, each fi sh
being the suhject of a, eparate bargain; and no fignr es
I:J,re available a to local pr ices.
COA."r DT, TRJO'I',Nl!]URI F.)l]lIJ,AN.
'1'he fi hing-industry
here is a . mall one. There are a fair nnmber of drift net. (tianIlO), but few. takes. T he stakes t.hat there are
belong mai.nly to a type which appears to be prohi bited
nnder the name of blat !.Ting bllt licensed un(1er that ot
bI((t cllldo/...
The 'ommittee invite attention to t.ho following
figllres. 'rhe Serembau I ric of fre h fi sh (accordi.ng to
t11 e Gazette) wa ' ] 5 cents to 1 cents a catty in January,
189;), and wa,' 44! cent. a catty in Ma.rch, 1904. At Port
Dickson itself th Committee found that fi h was being
sold at 24 cent, and the people. a id that the pl'ice wa.
4 cents only a few years back. Thi. enormous increase
does not , eem to have enriched the fishermen in any way,
and goes to show that tb fi.'herie. cannot be as product ive now as formerly . One fisherman , inde d, expr
the hope that Government would now provide a satisfactory pa1Vang to bring the fish back.
KUALA LAr ONI'.
In thi' district there are further
complaint' of the falling off in t he suppl y of fi sh, and,
wlmt is mol' inter sting the ii. hermen . ay that hey
have to f'o further a.nd furthol' up the Sumatran coast a'
t11e n e:w st \Y:1terR th 1'e arc I> ing E'Xl1 allsted .
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The ice-storage hOll. c at 'l'anjong' Rhu, formel'1y in
constant li se in the fi fih-tl'a le, i now yil'tnally abandoned
owing to the tliminislJed . uppl:,. The e.' port duty on
alt-fish, ulacLan, etc., 'how' . 0111e falling off since 180:3,
but was never consid erable. '1'be l1nmber of fishermen
seems (from the licen (\ reyenue) to have about doubled
in the last ten year.~
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There is a large and rather destructive
fishing-industry in this district; 841 quarterly licenses
were issued last yel:lx for the use of the sungkoT and 158
for that of the ({.?nbai (here known as blat lcmggai) . Th e
export of salt-fish and fish-manure amounted to $13,730
ill. 1903 as against $14,696 (apparently for salt-fish only)
in 1893 .
KLANG.
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SELANCOJl,.--This is a most important fi shing
district. The revenue from licenses in 1902 was $8,478,
in 1903 it was $7,410. The export duty (10 per cent.)
on fish and blacban in 1902 was $3,822; in 1903 it was
$2,238. The falling off is due to tbe heavy royalty
charged by the Forest Department on wood for the [~mbai
fisheries. The price of fresh fish at Kua.l a Selangor itself
was found to be 12 cents to 16 cents a catty. Th e
export returns for the same district ten yen,rs ago show a
remark;a~le contrast with present figure. ; they were
KUALA
1892.
. ..
Salt-fish
Dried shrimps ...
Blachan
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$.28,379
] 6,458
4,9,094
1893.
.. .
...
...
$26,175
12,408
52,375
1903.
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...
...
$8,638
1,069
10,679
The falling off is not to be explained by any increase
in taxation since the number of fishermen must be about
as. great now as then . As, however, th export-fi gures
only represent n, portion of the catch, it wonld be danger011S to generalize.
PERPUSTAKAAN
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DUIDINcs.
TheA
fi ·hing
industry
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Dind.ings
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is of exceptional interest owing to the varioty of proce se
employed, almost every typ of net and trap being representeel . 'rhe nets are not licensed, and the only figures
available (fi bing-stakes anI boat-licenses) go to show
that the number of men engaged in the industry is not
falling off. The men, however, complain t hat the catch
i falling off, and there is no donut that tbe salt-fish and
blackm imll1,' try (whi ch wa s thriYing fifteen years ago)
is now practically dead, while th e trndc in ire, 11 or boiled
fisll for immediate consnmption is c1eclininp', only one
steamer no" vi.'iting til · port.
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MA'rAN :. '1'here is a lal'o' fi billD' industry in the
e tuarie. on the Perak coa. t ; and a good deal of it is
cl tructive
to
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hown
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fact
that
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9, 4< pikul of fish -manure were actuall y exported
from t his eli trict in 1903 . There are about 150
mnbai on this coa t, 56 J)07l1pang, and 50 sllngko7'.
larD' amount of the fishing i a1 0 done by the jm'illg
and ]JII1Lat, but unfortun ately no tati t.ics are availabl to. how the .·port a. the dlltv 11a" been commut d
for a fixed payment. A large amount of irnmatnr0
fi h i
on. nmed in thi.· di trict as food for pig and
cluck .
'Th e commutation of
hi. eli. trict nmh)s it. irnpo ibl
£lo'mes with former year', bllt
manure wrl'e exported in 1. 3
1 . 3.
KRIAN.
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:rc:,
h duty on alt-fi h in
to gi \'0 comparati \'
7,.-00 pikul s of fl. hap again t 20,077 in
PH Y INC'E \V EIJTJ1~.· r.1W jL~D L OWEn
P ERAK.Tit fi sherie. in these place. call for no special r emal+
owing to t h lack 0-[ comparative ·tati tical data.
Complaints are made that the LOIyer P erak fish el'ie. arc
diminishing in value, while in Province WeHesley t here
j a t hriving trad in immature fi h a food for pig and
(lnck. The p07r11J((ngs a1' laid in the faiL'\vay of t he
channel near Butterworth and are a con. taut dm1D'er to
navigation, while the carryin o. of putrid fi h t hrough th'
village has a1 0 been a nni ance that ha. called for polic
action.
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II. EXHAU TION OF THE FISHERIES.
In mo. t of the places vi...,ite 1 by the Committe,
complaint. wer made that the fishel'ie. weI'
exhan. ted . f 'nch complaint a1' · Y ry oM.
bein g
The Malay author of the Hikayat bduUah, writing
about] 50, tated that the fi h in ingapore, when 11
fit' t vi it c1 he place on it · founding in 1 1 ,weI' much
tamer and mol' numerou ' than they. ubseqnently came
to be.
bdnllah came from t[a1acca., an old-e tabli 'hed
. ettlel1lent, to water that were practical] y nnfi hec1~ and
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hi, ' statem ent i. proh:lbly corr(>ct. In ] 8!.H I': hen
enquiries werC' malic on the snbj ct of fishing, the same
compl aint wa" hearcl at Malacca it elf. " I t will pJ:obably
be found," wrote Mr. ,Vesterhout, " bat the number of
fishing- tak es is decreasing owing to the scarcity of fisb .
This growing scarcity of fi, b force a large number of
fishermen to cr08~ the I t.rait to the Sumatra coast.
. . . Fish in Ma]acca is 1'0 sca rce that, to my owu
knowledge, the fishermen often retnrn after a night's
toil with nothin g or Rcal'cely anything." On the other
hand, Mr. Kynl1ersley, the Resident Councj}Jor, writing
at the sa,me time and on the arne ubject, aid: "Fish is
said to be mu ch cb eaper than formerly. . . . This is
attributable to th e larger amonnt of fish now taken."
It i diffictllt to reconcile the c two statement, . In the
report, of t he Di, trict Officer ' on t he F.M .S. coa, t in
1894 there i. a c rtain hopeflll tone about the development of the fi 'her ies ,,'hich preRents a remarkable
contrast wit h th pe;~ simi , tic attitnde of tbe fishermen at
the pre ent time. ThC' reyellUe from lic en. os and from
the duty on fi, h 'was t·hen inc1'ea ing; it is now a
dimini hin,?' qnantity. r:eb e stati tic. are not very
sati factory in view of tbe fact that the export duties .
cannot show the proportion of fiRh locally con umed;
but tbere j, the fnrth er fact that th e enormous rise in
price at Seremban, for instance, ha so little enriched tbe
fi hermen tbat the indnstr'y bas not materially increased,
and that a ,mall diff renee in the fee for a drift-net is
said to have indncoc1 a nnmber of Malacca Malay to
take out licenses at Port Dicb:;on. 'rhe cientific evidence
r egarding tho , i7.e of fi sh is too limited to permit of
positive conc]nsion ; bnt" . 0 far a~ it O'oes, it . upports
the view that tbe catch is dimini. hing. Finally, there is
the interestin g statement made at .Ingra, that th e fisheries
on the nearer por tions of t he nma-tran coa. t are losing
their richn e s and that the men bave to go furtber and
furth er away. It is po, ible tbat t he heayy catches
which are undonbt illy made on uewly opened fishingground, are clue (I S l'nnch to the tam enes of th e fish as
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to t heir nnmh r. . 1t i. pos :iblo alf'o t hat th e fal1 in ,:; off
ha.· be n e ~aggerat(? d. •'till, "hen overy aJl owance hal'
be J made for po sible error, the 'ommittee arc forced
to the concln.,ion that the fisheries are less rich t han they
were, and that this fallinD' off, even if it is insufficient to
canse erious alarm, mu ,t be greater than it wonld ha.ve
been but for the wa t efLlln es of some of the methods. of
fishing employed.
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THE RELATIVE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF NATIVE
METHOD OF FI RING.
The Oommit tee are unable to judge of the oxact ffect.
of proces. . nch at 1'[~11'(l1 - fi l' hing and th li se of dynamite,
noh proces. 'e are id to do mol' harm by tbe alarm
that they creat.e than by the actual destrnction that they
cause. 1'he Oommittee b lieve that the rawai doe.', as a
matter of fact, catch scale Ie'::; fi h . nch as hark, and
ray ; they cannot say what £fee it ha ' on .'caled. fi 'h;
and they cannot recommend th withclrawa,l of the prohibition of this form of fi hing, since the proce ' i a cruel
one and one which probably wound many fish wit.hout
profit to the fi hermau.
Apart from proce' es ,'uch as tho. e just mentioned,
the Oommittee con. ider that the n of purse-nets the
ambai, t·he ch(fnc7c:k and the JJompang must be enormonsly
cl tl'Uctive to the young £toy. 'l'b jJOmpClllg is avowedly
intended for extremely mall fi h of ever,v hn 1. Tb e
wnbrd is intended for R hrimp ~ , 1 nt it catchc. gmall fi. h a.
well, and it could not catch the small wlang gerag(tn for
which it is in great mea me intendd if the Govel'nment
rnle a, to a half-in ch meRh conlel be prof:>erl y Guforced.
orne, at 1 ast, of the, e (lInbll i mell have beeu known to
place a small bag of coarse cloth (I.:rrin 1'[( Ini) ill t he n et
::mel so to turn it in to a ack which catches everythin o.,
however minute, 1'hi, I r ae ic i probably wjde ~ pread .
The chandek is very little 11 'ed, but resembles the rrmbai
in principle.
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The Oommittej3 con ider aL 0 that th small hand-net
known as sung7~o1' ml1.st be very destr-llctive to extremely
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young fry on tbe a. ' 'umption that the local f.\pecies of fish
resemble in habits kindred specie in Europe.
The seine-nets (p~l7.;at t-l?'ek) when used with thinmeshed pockets do a certain amount of damage to young
fish. In theory the fish can escape when the net begins
to be ha:n1ed in; in practice they seem to sw im away
before it, till it is too late. rrh e Committee saw a pile of
immature fi sh so caught and thrown away on the beach.
These seines are not, however, used for the special purpose
of destroying the small fry and are much leRs injurious
than purse-nets.
The destrnctivene!'>sof the large fish-traps (blats, lcelongs
and jeremals) depends on the 'w idth of t he interstice in
the screens or snbm erged nets used in each case. In the
case of a bbt lenglrang (the working of which was twice
witn essed by two members of the Com mittee), the interstice wa,s one of about an inch and no fish of very small
size was caught. Indeed, many were actually seen to
escape through the interstices. Yet thi. is a prohibited
process of fishing owing to its alleged destructiveness.
Again, at Kuala Selangor, the submerged screen (da'un) of
a large j(h'e'inal had such small in ter stices that it allowed
practically nothing to escape, and was seen to catch a
large number of very young fi sh which the men proposed
to sell as food for pigs,
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'.1,.1he truth is that the bll1.f, IB11gkong and the blat 7cring
can be made exceptionally destructive by the use of a
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screen with small interstices, for the complete withdrawal
of tbe water within t he area enclosed kills every fish
whether the men think it worth removing or not. Doubtles8 for this r eason these traps ar e prohibited. rrhey can,
however, be mad e much less pernicious than the licensed
je?"emals and blnts, so t.hat the matter seems to be one for
regulation only.
The Committee are of opinion that the common driftnets knowll as lndcat and jr:(,1'ing are quite innocLlolls to
small fry owing to the size of the mesh, and are therefore
open to no objection whatever.
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IV.- - TAXA'rION OF FI. HERIE •.
Till' e . cales of li censo-fee. are iu forc o Oll the We. t
Ooast: one in the Strait. Se tlemeuts, one in the Negri
(embilan, and a third in P erak and ~elangor. Besides
this, there is eitber an expor t duty on fi h (Selangor) <?l'
a capitation-charge on fi hermen in commutation of the
duty (Perak) or no duty whatever (Straits).
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It i unnece a,ry to go into minute detail regarding
these local differences, but they are considerable. A
je1'emal, for in ta.nce, pay '5 per annum in' Malacca and
$24 per annnm in Selangor a,nd Perak. Small stakes
pay 90 cent. per annum in l\falacca amI $L per annum
in Pera,k and Selangor. Nets pay notbing in Malacca
an i pa,y as much a 812 per annum in Pera k a,nd
Selangor. rrher e is no pecial rea on for these local
variations; but the difference in he incidence of taxation
upon the different proces. es of fi hing eems to be Lased
, upon theories as to their profitablene . and so raises the
whole question of the pr'inciple upou which taxation
. hould rest.
A tax on the fishing-iudu try, as such, is a tax: on
labour and a, tax on food. A uming, however, that
regulation is needed it is only right that the indu'try
honld pay for its own . npport, and. it seems to th
Oommittee that the pl·oce. . eN which mo.'t nee i regulation
should he tho.·o which contribute mORt to th e cost of
control. 'rhe Committee con. ider tlnt such control i
necessary:
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(1) to prevent the de trnction of immature fi sh;
(2) to check dispute by recofcling th e ownership of
net. , traps and boat ;
(3) to provde r eliabl data a to the condition and
progres of the inclu try.
The cost of r egnlation will not be a, tax on food if by
checking wasteful processes it succeeds in increasing
and 0 cheapening the upply of mature and marketable
fish.