OYSTER FISHERY LEGISLATION. 1023 



the cake must be cut, we may as well share it ; so ' sic 

 transit gloria ostrecE? ' By these remarks we do not mean 

 to suggest that owners of private freehold or copyhold 

 oyster grounds should in any way be interfered with ; they 

 should be allowed to cultivate and manage their property 

 in such a manner and at such times as they may judge 

 best and most advisable for their own interests, dredging 

 for buying, selling, and laying down oysters when and how 

 it seems best to them. 



Any interference with these holders would entail com- 

 pensation for vested interests, and it should be borne in 

 mind that local conditions and requirements are best 

 understood by those accustomed to them, who have in many 

 cases the accumulated experience of several generations to 

 guide them. 



In the early part of this year two applications were 

 made for 3000 acres of the Blackwater to the eastward of 

 the 2000 acres that were granted to the Mersea and 

 Tollesbury Company some five years ago one from Mr. 

 John Smith, an applicant for various other concessions; the 

 other from the dredgermen of Brightlingsea, Wyvenhoe and 

 East Donyland. 



Mr. John Smith was non-suited. The evidence, as 

 usual in such cases, was very conflicting. Dredgermen from 

 other places deposed to the harm it would do them were 

 these grounds closed ; whilst the dredgermen of Bright- 

 lingsea, Wyvenhoe and East Donyland complained that 

 the ground, formerly free to them, had been granted to the 

 Mersea and Tollesbury Company, and that now in their 

 turn they ought to get at least 2000 acres granted them for 

 their exclusive use. 



Evidence was also given that large quantities of the 

 brood that was spatted in 1881 had been sold this year from 



