PO TEN TIALITIES. 3 1 7 



species, Ostrca glonierata, capabilities exist for increasing the present output, and of extending 

 the areas now under cultivation, which are almost unlimited. Hitherto, cultivation in its highest 

 sense, as practised at the French and other oyster fisheries, has not been practically in- 

 stituted, the natural rate of increase of the mollusc being sufficient for present requirements. 

 As shown, however, by the result of the experiments recorded in the Oyster Fisheries Chapter, 

 scientific methods of culture are capable of application to the Queensland oyster, and yield an 

 enormous increase. By utilising the description of spat-collectors described and figured 

 in this volume, it will be possible, also, to bring immensely larger foreshore areas than 

 hitherto under artificial cultivation. 



A great desideratum in the further development of the Queensland oyster fisheries, 

 is a solution of the means ot bringing her superabundant supplies within easy reach of the 

 British consumer. In its tinned or otherwise conserved condition, the sale and consumption 

 of the bivalve is limited to its utilisation only in a cooked form. As its porterage alive, for the 

 five or six weeks that must intervene between its shipment and delivery in London, is scarcely 

 feasible on a commercially remunerative basis, the only alternative at present available is the 

 refrigerating chamber. An experimental test consignment was placed on board the British India 

 Company's ss. Jumna by the Moreton Bay Oyster Company, on the occasion of the author's recent 

 voyage to England, he being deputed to " sample " them en route and report on the results. These, 

 it is to be regretted, were scarcely as satisfactory as had been hoped ; but at the same tim.e, 

 they justified anticipations that under more favourable, specially arranged, conditions, Queensland 

 oysters may be delivered in prime marketable condition at the London docks. To the innumerable 

 Anglo-Australians, to whom the flavour of the Queensland or Sydney Rock oyster, as it is 

 variously known, is held in higher repute than even the Colchester native, the prospects of a 

 regular supply of the Antipodean bivalve would be welcome intelligence. 



The potentialities of the pearl and pearl-shell fisheries of the Great Barrier region repre- 

 sent, in the author's opinion, one of Queensland's most valuable assets ; the direction in which 

 this fishery is capable of unlimited development is, as with the oyster fisheries, that of 

 artificial cultivation. In the chapter dealing with the pearl-shell industry, the feasibility of 

 transporting the mother-of-pearl shell and of cultivatmg it, much after the manner of ordinary 

 oysters, is, by the record of practical experiment, fully demonstrated. Foreshore areas and 

 reef-lagoons throughout Torres Strait and the Great Barrier region, to the extent of thou- 

 sands of square miles, thus opened up for profitable development, represent, in consideration 

 of the leasing powers over these areas now possessed by the Government, as established 

 by the recent Act, an enormous potential source of revenue. 



Several important points are associated with the leasing capacities possessed by the Queens- 

 land Government. The territorial boundary of Queensland, as defined by Act 43 Vict., No. i, 1879 

 (quoted in extenso on page 224), is conterminous with the outer border of the Great Barrier Reef, 



