462 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



On the 8th of November, 1876, the Board of Trade 

 issued its certificate depriving the Company of the eastern 

 half of its grounds. In the following month the Company 

 surrendered its fishery at South Deep ; at the commence- 

 ment of January, 1877, it concluded an arrangement with 

 Mr. Gann, of Whitstable, for the sale of " so much of their 

 stuff (oysters) from their stock beds as they liked to sell to 

 him." Under this arrangement 367,450 oysters and brood 

 were sold to Mr. Gann, in the first six months of 1877 ; the 

 sales ceased for the season on the zjrd June. In 1877 tne 

 sales had been thus confined to the oysters from the stock 

 beds. In 1878 and 1879 the Company concluded another 

 arrangement with Mr. Roots, an oyster merchant of Herne 

 Bay, under which it undertook to sell him the oysters 

 dredged from the rest of the grounds. These sales con- 

 cluded in the summer of 1879, and the Company's pro- 

 ceedings after that day assumed a different character, which 

 must be described later on. 



The Memorialists inferred from this evidence that (i) 

 in 1877 the stock on the stock beds was dredged up and 

 sold ; (2) in 1878 and 1879 the Company, having no stock 

 on the stock beds, realised the scattered remnants of its 

 property by disposing of the oysters which it dredged up 

 from the rest of the ground. As the case of the Memo- 

 rialists turned partly on these two points, I propose to 

 examine them with some care. 



i st. As to the sales to Mr. Gann. 



These sales were given to me week by week, for the 

 25 weeks during which they lasted. I think, however, that 

 I shall make the account more intelligible if I group the 

 sales into periods of four weeks. The account will then 

 stand as follows : 



