466 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



Rose is accurate in saying that all the oysters on the stock 

 beds were caught. The sale of oysters in 1878 and 1879, 

 according to Mr. Lovely, produced 



s. d. 

 During the first half-year of 1878 .. 388 o o 



,, second ,, ,, . . 15190 



first ,, 1879 .. 345 1 8 3 



^749 i? 3 

 But the sales to Mr. Roots of 88,672 oysters and brood 



only yielded, at 6s. a hundred, the price which he paid 

 for them, 266 ; it follows that, in the same period, the 

 Company must have sold oysters worth ^484 to other 

 persons. As Mr. Roots had all the oysters not taken from 

 the stock beds, it follows that this ^484 must have been 

 received from oysters taken from the stock beds,* and that 

 these sales must have further reduced the stock on these 

 beds, already dangerously attenuated by the sales to Mr. 

 Gann in 1877. 



I think, then, it is clear that the stock on the Com- 

 pany's stock beds was reduced to very small proportions at 

 the end of June, 1877, and that it was further reduced at 

 the end of 1879. And I am inclined, indeed, to conclude 

 that the stock beds at the latter date can be hardly said to 

 have existed. I am confirmed in this conclusion by another 

 branch of the evidence which I received, and to which I 

 must now allude. 



* This inference is supported by the evidence of Mr. Lovely, 

 which has already been quoted. He says that the stock on the stock 

 beds was reduced from 639,546 in 1877 to 551,563 in 1879, or by 

 88,000 oysters. The cash value of 88,000 oysters, at us. a hundred, 

 would be exactly ^"484 ; its. a hundred would have been a good but 

 not an excessive price for Herne Bay oysters, in the seasons of 1878 and 

 1879. 



