OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 411 



Fishery, I cannot' content myself with presenting you with 

 the statements made by the dredgermen side by side with 

 the results of my own inspection ; but that I must also 

 place before you a very grave accusation, which is made 

 against them by the Emsworth Merchants' Company, and 

 which if true destroys the value of any inference deducible 

 from the returns supplied by them. It is alleged that 

 systematic poaching was carried on by the members of the 

 Dredgermen's Company upon the Merchants' Company's 

 ground, from 1872 to 1875 inclusively, to such an extent 

 that a very large part of the oysters stated by the dredger- 

 men to have been derived from their own fishery, were in 

 fact taken from that belonging to the Merchants' Company. 

 It is said that in 1871, four watchmen being then kept, 

 little or no poaching occurred, but that in the next year, it 

 being wished to reduce the expenses, the number of 

 watchers was diminished to two, and that poaching then 

 began on a large scale. An attempt was made to check it 

 by prosecuting the offenders, but seven men who were 

 prosecuted in January, 1873, having been discharged on 

 their own recognizances to come up for judgment when 

 called on, the directors looked upon further efforts in this 

 direction as useless, and it is asserted that the poaching 

 steadily increased from that time. A sergeant in the 

 county police, and an ex-constable of that body, who were 

 brought before me, spoke to having seen 20 Emsworth 

 boats dredging upon the Merchants' Company's ground in 

 1873, and on another occasion, in 1874, they saw 16 or 18 

 boats engaged in like manner. Mr. Jarman, late secretary 

 of the Merchants' Company, stated to me that he saw 16 

 boats in one night, and 12 at another time, in 1875. It is 

 alleged that boats frequently came, but that as they chose 

 the night time or foggy mornings it was difficult to count 



