LECTUEES. 



Oysters and Oyster-culture in Australasia. 



A Lecture by W. Saville-Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S., V.P.A.A.Sc. 



1891, Commissioner of Fisheries, Queensland; delivered, 

 in the absence of the Author, by Professor T. Jeffery 

 Parker, F.E.S., at the Third Evening Meeting, on 19th 

 January, 1891. 



The oyster question, which for many years past has so greatly 

 exercised the minds of both the producer and the consumer in 

 the Old World, bids fair in the no very distant future to occupy 

 as prominent a position among British polemics in the South- 

 ern Hemisphere. The halcyon days of oysters at 6d. per 

 dozen represents but a dream of the past in the English market, 

 the world-renowed Colchester " native " being now retailed at 

 the almost prohibitory price of 3s. 6d. for that small number. 

 Matters have not arrived at so serious a pass as yet in Austra- 

 lia, but, with the present rapidly-increasing rate of population 

 and coincident increase in the consumption of the bivalve, the 

 time cannot be so very far distant when it will here also be a 

 luxury at the disposal of the wealthy only — that is, unless 

 some drastic means are inaugurated to counterbalance, by arti- 

 ficially-assisted propagation, the present unlimited consump- 

 tion. More than one of the colonies that in former years pro- 

 duced enough oysters and to spare in its own waters has so far 

 devoured and laid w^aste its natural inheritance that it is now 

 dependent mainly, or even exclusively, upon neighbouring 

 countries for its supplies. By-and-by, probably, these supplies 

 will not suffice for more than the producing country's home 

 consumption, and on arriving at that stage it may be taken 

 for granted that the price of oysters to the Australian public 

 will be very materially advanced. 



Varieties of Australian Oysters. 

 Before entering further into the discussion of this undeniably 

 unsatisfactory condition of affairs, and its possible remedy, a 

 brief enumeration of the commercial oysters indigenous to Aus- 

 tralasia may prove acceptable. An oyster indistinguishable 

 to the ordinary public apprehension from the British native 



