SUPPLEMENT. 1247 



Our recommendations were carried out. But as the 

 complaints about the scarcity of oysters went on increas- 

 ing, the matter was re-investigated by a Committee of the 

 House of Commons in 1876. This Committee published 

 two reports, a valuable minority report by Mr. Shaw- 

 Lefevre, and a singular majority report drawn up by the 

 chairman. 



The latter states that the Committee have " come to 

 the conclusion that the supply of oysters round the British 

 coasts has for some years steadily decreased, and that 

 though, to some extent, cold seasons have contributed to 

 cause this diminution, the principal cause is to be found 

 in the continual and constantly increasing practice of 

 over-dredging for them in open waters, without allowing 

 sufficient close time. Your Committee have also obtained 

 evidence from France, in which country regulations for 

 close seasons, for some years, have been more or less 

 rigidly insisted on ; and it appears to them that, in propor- 

 tion to the stringency with which these regulations have 

 been enforced, the supply of oysters has increased. 



" Your Committee have therefore come to the con- 

 clusion that it is desirable to make provision for a general 

 close time for oyster fisheries, and that it should extend 

 from the ist of May to the ist of September in each year." 



In consequence of this recommendation we have got 

 back the old close time, which, as I hope I have already 

 sufficiently proved, is of not the slightest value for the pur- 

 pose which the Committee intend it to serve. 



It will be observed that the Committee attach much 

 weight to the evidence received from France. It is un- 



O 



doubtedly very weighty ; but I think that if the Committee 

 had given it the attention which it deserves, they would 

 have seen that it tells dead against their recommendation. 



