OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 457 



The Secretary of State for the Home Department was 

 pleased to approve my recommendation ; the Board of 

 Trade, to whom the matter was referred, concurred with 

 the Secretary of State. As, however, the Herne Bay 

 Fishery Act, 1864, contained no provision for withdrawing 

 only a portion of the ground from the Company, a Bill was 

 introduced into Parliament which enabled my recommenda- 

 tion to be carried out. 



The Bill, which became the Sea Fisheries Act, 1875, 

 placed under the Board of Trade any oyster fishery com- 

 pany which, by any personal or local Act passed since the 

 year 1863, is in any manner made subject to the control of 

 the Inspectors of Fisheries, as if such company had obtained 

 an order under Part III. of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868. 



The 45th section of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, as 

 amended by the 2nd section of the Oyster and Mussel 

 Fisheries Confirmation Act, 1869 (No. 2), enacts that a 

 right of several oyster fishery, conferred by an order of the 

 Board of Trade, shall be determinable either as to the 

 entire area of the fishery, or as to any part thereof, by a 

 certificate of the Board of Trade, certifying to the effect 

 that the Board of Trade is not satisfied that the grantees 

 under the order are properly cultivating the oyster grounds 

 within the limits of such fishery. 



The passage of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1875, therefore, 

 transferred to the Board of Trade the jurisdiction which 

 the Inspector of Fisheries had been given over the com- 

 pany. Soon after its passage fresh Memorials were pre- 

 sented to the Board of Trade, alleging the non-cultivation 

 of the Company's grounds. The Board of Trade instructed 

 me to act as its Inspector, under the Sea Fisheries Act, 

 1868, and to inquire into the truth of these allegations. 

 Accordingly, at the end of 1875 and in the beginning of 



