120 NEW SOUTH WALES 



tremendous losses of spat and oysters in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 

 but from the negligence and greed of the cultivators. The Royal 

 Commission (Ireland, 1870) say in their Report : There is no reason to 

 doubt that the decline in production (in France) is to be attributed to 

 the neglected state of the collectors, and also to the selling of too many 

 of the parent oysters, and thus annihilating to a considerable extent the 

 source of spat. This, the Commission say, is admitted by the proprietors 

 themselves, who have found their expectations to get spat without 

 parent oysters to be delusive, and they are now taking means to renew 

 the stock of oysters and collectors. The selling of their breeding oysters 

 is but a repetition of the old story of killing the goose that lays the 

 golden eggs. But now the tide has turned, and the French having 

 learned by bitter experience not to trust solely to their fine climate and 

 great natural advantages, have put their shoulders to the wheel, and by 

 skill and industry have turned the bountiful gifts of Providence to good 

 account. Like causes can never opei'ate in New South Wales to injure 

 the oyster industry, from the fact that there are many localities whei-e 

 marketable oysters cannot be profitably dredged for consumption, but 

 where spat can at all times be obtained in any quantity. 



" Mr. Farrar, Secretary to the Board of Trade, in the evidence he gave 

 before the said Select Committee of the House of Commons (1876), 

 said : — 'Mr. Pennell was sent by the Board of Trade, in 1868, to inspect 

 the French oyster fisheries, and he gave a most melancholy account of 

 them — nothing could be worse. The Irish Commission confirmed that 

 melancholy account ; but now it appears from the official returns of the 

 French Government (1876) that the production has enormously 

 increased. At Marennes the private cultivators have been enormously 

 successful ; at Cancale the value of the oysters produced had risen from 

 97,375 francs in 1869 to 720,800 francs in 1874. The octriculturists, 

 who have established pares on the banks of the Auray, gather consider- 

 able quantities of young oysters in their collectors, and many of them 

 have already realized important profits. Many of the proprietors of 

 pares are embarrassed by the abundance of their produce.' Mr. J. A. 

 Blake, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, in the evidence he gave before the 

 said Select Committee (1876) said : — ' French oysters will cause a great 

 revolution in the oyster trade in England ; so that we need to care very 

 little about our own production at all, biit look more to the fattening.' " 



The ofiicial value of the oyster produce in France for 1873 was given 

 as follows : — 2,477,565 francs. The dredging in the ports of Granville, 

 Cancale, and L'Orient, produced in 1873 nearly 13 million oysters, 

 against over 4 million and a half in the previous year ; in 1874 it was 

 13 million and a half. From the official statement lately published, the 

 following statistics are given for the commerce in oysters in France, for 

 the season from the 1st Sept. to 30th April : — 



Oysters taken from the beds. Value. Price per 1,000. 



1874 ... 104,731,350 7,727,000 francs. ... 73-78 francs. 



1875 ... 227,640,212 11,247,416 ,, ... 49-40 ,, 



1876 ... 335,774,070 13,226,296 „ ... 39-39 ,, 



This shows the enormoiis increase of the production and the con- 

 sequent lowering of the price, but not proportionately, for though the 

 production increased more than three times the price did not fall to 

 one-half. 



