FISH AND CHIPS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3376, 2 March 1920, Page 7

FISH AND CHIPS

Half a million sterling is spent every week by the people of Great Britain on fried fish and chips, representing an average weekly provision of 30,000,000 meals. That fried fish shops are a national necessity is proved by these figures. Altogether there are 25,000 fried fish in the country (says an English paper), which prepare, cook, and distribute 4,000 tons of fish and 10,000 tons of potatoes every week. It is not generally realised, perhaps, that the fishing industry depends to a large extent on the fried fish shops. Of the 80.000 tons of fish annually consumed in Great Britain, a quarter of that amount is distributed through the fried fish shops in the country. Most of the fish dealt with by the fish friers are too small for the ordinary fishmonger's slab. Many—but for the fish frier —would on account of their size have been wasted or at best turned into manure.

We are surrounded by the seas. and those seas produce an abundant harvest of food which needs only to be reaped. But we are not yet a nation of fish eaters. Except what they buy and eat through the fried fish shops, the average person generally eats very little fish. The few varieties of fish people do cook for themselves were first made popular by the fried fish trade.

To give buto ne instance, hake is now a very popular fish all over the country; twenty years ago it was locked at askance by most people. Then the friers took it up, created a taste for it. and in 1913 32,000 tons of hake were caught. Even then the supply was not eanrly equal to the demand. Skate, fresh haddocks, dog fish, "monks," etc., have been similarly popularised.