Abstract
FROM the cheerful note of preparation which is now being sounded, we presume the opening of the International Fisheries Exhibition will take place punctually on the day which has been fixed for that event—May 1. That the Exhibition wilt be successful, both in a pecuniary sense and as an exposition of fishery economy and of the natural history of our food fishes, may, we think, be even now predicted. The two exhibitions by which it has been preceded, those of Edinburgh and Norwich, not only paid all expenses, but left a handsome surplus; so that, with the vast population of London and the strangers who daily come within its gates to work upon, the promoters of the exposition are warranted in believing that it will prove a success. It will undoubtedly be the greatest affair of the sort which has yet been designed, and will occupy a site twice as large as the Norwich and Edinburgh exhibitions joined together. The fishery exhibition which was held at Berlin three years ago was visited by nearly half a million persons, but it was only open for ten weeks, whilst the show to be held at South Kensington will remain open for six months, and as the population of London is more than four times greater than that of Berlin, we may calculate on the visitors to the Fishery Exhibition running into big figures;—two million persons at a shilling each would represent a sum of one hundred thousand pounds. Already a large guarantee fund has been subscribed by corporations and private persons, and there is no reason why Parliament should not be asked for a grant in aid, although any money that might be granted may not be required. It is right to say that as a nation we play a rather “mean” part in such matters, and are quite outdone in liberality by other countries. America, for instance, is sending us an “exhibit” which will cost that country ten thousand pounds, and other foreign countries are acting in an equally liberal spirit. If we were asked on any occasion to reciprocate, what answer could we make? We have positively nothing that we could send. With the exception of the toy museum left to the country by Mr. Frank Buckland, we possess nothing in the shape of a national collection illustrative of fishery economy; hence the Exhibition which is about to open assumes very much the shape of a commercial enterprise, and becomes a gate-money show. But that is better than nothing, and it is to be hoped that from the debris of the approaching exposition a substantial addition may be made to the Buckland Museum of economic fish culture, and if we may be permitted to make such a suggestion, the aquarium should, if that is possible, be so arranged that it could be left as a permanent attraction for all who are interested in the natural history of fish and in the proper ingathering of the harvest of the sea.
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The Approaching Fishery Exhibition . Nature 27, 389–390 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027389d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027389d0