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SPANISH FISHERIES.
The Spanish Court at the late Fisheries Exhibition was large and well
furnished, there being several characteristic models of vessels. No
certain figures can be obtained of the results of the whole fishing
industry of Spain. It is, however, estimated that 14,202 boats, with a
tonnage of 51,397 tons, were employed during the year 1882. They gave
occupation to 59,974 men, and took about 78,000 tons of fish. The
Government interfere in the fishing industry only to the extent of
collecting and distributing information to the fishermen on subjects
that are most likely to be of use to them in their calling. In
consequence, principally no doubt of this wise policy, we find in
Spain a vigorous and self-reliant class of men engaged in the
fisheries. Some of the most interesting features in the Spanish Court
were the contributions sent by the different fishermen's associations,
and although the Naval Museum of Madrid supplied a collection of
articles that would have formed a good basis in itself for an
exhibition, yet in no other foreign court was the fishing industry of
the nation better illustrated by private enterprise than in that of
Spain. The fishing associations referred to are half benefit societies
and half trading communities. That of Lequeito has issued a small
pamphlet, from which we learn that this body consists of 600 members
divided into three classes, viz., owners of vessels, patrons or men in
charge, and ordinary fishermen. A board of directors, consisting of 22
owners, and 24 masters of boats or ordinary fishermen, has the sole
control of the affairs of the society. The meetings are presided over
by a majordomo elected triennially, and who must be the owner of a
boat over 40 ft. long. This functionary receives a stipend of 8,000
reales a year, a sum which sounds more modest when expressed as 80_l_.
He has two clerks, who are on the permanent staff, to help him. His
duties are to keep the books with the assistance of the two clerks, to
take charge of the sales of all fish, recover moneys, and make
necessary payments. In stormy weather he gets up in a watch tower and
guides boats entering the harbor. The _atalayero_ is an official of
the society, whose duty it is to station himself on the heights and
signal by means of smoke, to the boats at sea, the movements of
schools of sardines and anchovies or probable changes of weather. It
is also the duty of thi
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