458 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



1876, I held a fresh inquiry into the matter at Herne Bay. 

 I found as a fact that the Company, since the conclusion 

 of the period which had been the subject of my previous 

 inquiry, had not been properly cultivating the oyster 

 grounds, and I recommended the Board of Trade * to 

 divide the grounds between the Company and the public 

 in the manner which I had proposed in my previous 

 Report. 



The Board of Trade approved the recommendation 

 which I thus made, and on the 8th of November, 1876, 

 issued a certificate reducing the Company's grounds to the 

 suggested limits. 



This decision practically reduced the area of the 

 company's grounds from about nine square miles to rather 

 more than four square miles. 



I have traced the past history of the Company thus 

 shortly, because it may illustrate my future remarks, and 

 make them more intelligible than they might otherwise 

 prove to persons to whom this Report may be ultimately 

 accessible, and who may not be so well acquainted as the 

 Board of Trade itself is with the Company's history. 



I now proceed to state the circumstances under which 

 the present inquiry arose. 



In the summer of 1880 three Memorials were pre- 

 sented to the Board of Trade from the Company of Free- 

 fishers and Dredgers of Whitstable, from the Company or 

 Fraternity of Free Fishermen and Dredgermen of the 

 Manor or Hundred of Faversham, and from fishermen and 

 others connected with the parish of Whitstable and the 

 neighbourhood, with reference to the manner in which the 

 Company was cultivating its grounds. 



* Mr. Walpole's Report was presented to Parliament in 1876, 

 and is contained in Parliamentary Paper No. 65 of Session 1876. 



