If there ever had been any doubt as to the success of the International Fisheries Exhibition, it had been thoroughly removed long before the end of the season drew near. The popular interest had been shown from the beginning, and the number of visitors exceeded all expectations. The total number of visitors was 2,703,051. The daily average of visitors, including Wednesday, when half-a-crown was the price of admission, was 18,388. The financial result was sure to be satisfactory when such vast numbers had been attracted.
On the 31st of October, the day appointed for closing, Mr. Edward Birkbeck, M.P., Chairman of the Executive Committee, read to His Royal Highness the President an address, presenting the chief statistical and other official reports of the undertaking. One novel feature was the report on "the fish dinners" supplied with the co-operation of the National School of Cookery. No less than 209,673 dinners were supplied, at sixpence a head, and with satisfactory pecuniary results.
A Report as to the work of the Juries having been presented by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales thus replied to the address of the Executive Committee:—
"I have listened with great pleasure to the Report of the Executive Committee.
"Her Majesty has followed with much interest the success which has so signally attended this Exhibition, and I have had the gratification of receiving, this morning, a telegram from the Queen, begging me to inform you of these sentiments, and likewise to express Her Majesty's fervent hope that lasting benefit to the fishing population may be the reward of those who have shown so much interest in the welfare of this Exhibition. And it is as much a matter of satisfaction to my brothers as to myself to have contributed towards the success of an enterprise, respecting which, at the outset, nothing was certain but the heavy responsibility of those who had engaged in it.
"I am well aware that Her Majesty's Government, the Governments of Foreign Countries, and of our Colonies, through their respective Commissioners, and the various public bodies and private persons to whom you have alluded, have afforded most valuable and indeed indispensable aid to our undertaking; and I desire to add my own thanks to yours for their very important assistance.
"But it is just that I should supply the only deficiency which I observe in your Report, by pointing out that without the administrative capacity and unremitting toil of the Members of the Executive Committee, and especially of its Chairman, the eminently satisfactory results which you have reported to me could not have been attained.
"I learn with much pleasure that, after all expenses are defrayed, a substantial surplus will remain in your hands.
"The best method of disposing of that surplus is a matter which will need careful consideration. It would be premature to allude to any of the various suggestions which have already been put forward; but I am of opinion that no proposal will be satisfactory to the public, unless it is immediately directed towards the carrying out of the objects of the Exhibition from which the fund is derived; namely, the promotion of the welfare of Fishermen, Fisheries, and the Fishing Industry in general.
"And I think our duty towards the supporters of the Exhibition will not be discharged until we have done something towards the alleviation of the calamities fatally incidental to the Fisherman's calling; and until we have also done something towards the promotion of that application of Science to practice from which the Fishing Industry, like all other industries, can alone look for improvement.
"I believe, that apart from what may be effected by the judicious use of the Surplus Fund, the latter end may best be attained by the formation of a Society, having for its object the collection of statistics and other information relative to Fisheries; the diffusion among the fishing population of a knowledge of all improvements in the methods and appliances of their calling; the discussion of questions bearing upon Fishing Interests; and the elucidation of those problems of Natural History which bear upon the subject. Such a Society, as the representative of the interests of the Fisheries, would naturally take charge of the scientific investigations which bear upon those interests, and would, no doubt, be brought into relation with the Aquarium which you wisely propose to offer to the Government, and with the already existing Fishery Museum of the Department of Science and Art, which is founded on the Collection bequeathed to the nation by the late Mr. Buckland, but which has been immensely enlarged and enriched by the liberality of many of our exhibitors.
"You have rightly divined that it is a source of great gratification to me to be able to continue the work commenced by my father in 1851; and, by giving scope for the peaceful emulation of the leaders of industry of all nationalities in public Exhibitions, to divert the minds of men from those international rivalries by which all suffer, to those by which all gain.
"The evidence of the public interest in such Exhibitions, afforded by the vast concourse of visitors from all parts of the realm to that which is now closed, has led me to hope that the buildings which have been erected at so much cost, and which have so admirably served their purpose, shall continue for the next three years to be employed for Exhibitions of a similarly comprehensive character.
"In considering what shall be the subject-matter of these Exhibitions, three topics of paramount interest to our community have presented themselves to my mind. These are Health, both bodily and mental; Industrial Inventions; and the rapidly-growing resources of our Colonies and of our Indian Empire.
"I have expressed a desire that the Exhibition of 1884 will embrace the conditions of health, in so far as, like food, clothes, and dwellings, they fall under the head of Hygiene, or, like appliances for general and technical teaching, gymnasia and schools, under that of Education.
"The question of the Patent Laws has for many years engaged the attention of all those interested in the progress of invention and the just reward of the inventor. I am advised that the Patent Act of last Session will afford a satisfactory solution of the difficulties which beset this subject, and will be especially useful to the poor inventor by enabling him to obtain protection for his invention at a considerably reduced rate, and in a manner which will be more advantageous to him.
"Under these circumstances, it has appeared to me that much good may result from an Exhibition in the year 1885, showing the Progress of Invention, especially in labour-saving machinery, since 1862; that is to say, since the last great International Exhibition held in this country.
"At the close of the Paris Exhibition of 1868, I had the satisfaction of receiving from the Colonial Commissioners an address, in which great stress was laid on the desirability of establishing a permanent Colonial Museum in London, as a powerful means of diffusing throughout the Mother Country a better knowledge of the nature and importance of the several Dependencies of the Empire, of facilitating commercial relations, marking progress, and aiding the researches of men of science, and also of affording valuable information to intending emigrants.
"At that time I was able to do little more than to assure the Commissioners of my readiness to promote such a scheme, and to recommend the respective Governments to give it their full consideration.
"I trust that the British Colonial Exhibition which I propose to hold in 1886, may result in the foundation of such a Museum—the institution of which would secure for the people of this country a permanent record of the resources and development of Her Majesty's Colonies; and I hope that an important section of the proposed Exhibition of that year may result from the co-operation of our fellow-subjects, the people of India, in a suitable representation of the industrial arts of that Empire.
"In conclusion, I desire, as President of these Exhibitions, to thank the Special Commissioners, the Members of the General Committee, and the Jurors, for the time and labour they have devoted to the business of the Exhibition; and to express my high approbation of the cheerfulness and assiduity with which the members of the Executive Staff have discharged their very onerous duties.
"And I must finally signalize, as especially deserving of our gratitude, my brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the other foreign and English gentlemen, to whom we are indebted for the bestowal of much time and thought upon the papers which have been brought before those Conferences, which have formed so interesting and so useful a feature of the Exhibition. I am glad to hear that the value of the contribution to Fishery Literature, effected by the publication of these papers and the discussions to which they gave rise, has received authoritative recognition."
FINANCIAL RESULTS OF FISHERIES EXHIBITION, AND DISPOSAL OF SURPLUS.
After all the affairs of the Exhibition of 1883 had been wound up, including the financial accounts, a meeting of the General Committee was held on Saturday, March 22nd, 1884, to receive the Report of the Executive Committee. Details of receipts and outlay were presented. Reference was made to the wide interest awakened by the Exhibition, the attendance of fishermen from many lands, as well as from all parts of the United Kingdom, and the success of the attempt to sell fish at prices hitherto unknown in our great towns. The Report and Balance Sheet having been presented, the Prince of Wales thus spoke:—
"You have all listened, I am sure, with great interest to the report that has been read to you by the Chairman of the Executive Committee. From what we have heard, I think it is patent to all that the late Fisheries Exhibition has in every point of view been a success. It has been a financial success, and it has also been a success as regards the enormous number of people who have visited it, not only of our own countrymen and those from our colonies, but from every part of the globe. It is unnecessary for me on an occasion of this kind to enumerate the objects of this Exhibition, but I maintain that its two salient objects—viz., the scientific and practical ones—have fully justified its existence: its scientific object by the display of every possible kind of modern appliance, thus showing the great improvements that have been made in the fishing industry of the world; and its practical object because it not only showed to our own countrymen, but to all the world, what a valuable means of subsistence fish is. Many, I believe, had no idea of its value; while the existence of varieties of fish was made known which had not even been heard of by the great majority of people. Well, gentlemen, you have all heard that there is a surplus amounting to £15,243, and the question is naturally how to employ that sum. In the address that I read to you at the closing of the Exhibition I held out some hope that this might be applied in a useful and practical manner, and I would therefore now suggest to the General Committee that one of the best objects by which to perpetuate the results of this successful Exhibition would be to appropriate, say, about £10,000 to alleviate the distress of widows and orphans of sea fishermen. I use the words 'alleviate the distress' because I do not wish to bind any of you to our erecting an orphanage. That would cost a great deal of money, and, I think, would possibly be a mistake. If we were to embark in any great building enterprise of that kind, and in future find ourselves in debt, we should have frustrated the very object we have in view, viz., supporting the widows and orphans of those brave men who peril their lives at sea. I would also suggest that £3000 should be given as an endowment to a society, which might be called the Royal Fisheries Society. What shape that might take will be for your future consideration; but possibly some society might be founded under such a name or character, similar to the Royal Agricultural Society. We shall then have a surplus of about £2000 left, which, I think you will all agree, will be a good thing to keep in reserve. It would be for the general public in future to show their interest in this scheme by supporting it to the best of their ability. I beg, therefore, to move the following resolution:—'That a sum of £10,000 be invested, with a view to applying the proceeds to the assistance of families who have suffered the loss of a father or husband in the prosecution of his calling as a sea fisherman; and that a further sum of £3000 be applied to the formation of a Fisheries Society, such as was suggested by His Royal Highness the President in his reply to the report of the Executive Committee on the 31st of October, 1883.'"
That suggestion was that a society should be formed, having for its object the collection of statistics and other information relative to Fisheries; the diffusing among the fishing population of a knowledge of all improvements in the methods and appliances of their calling; the discussion of questions bearing upon fishing interests: we wish we could add, "the interests of the public," in obtaining more and cheaper fish!