56 THE OYSTER FISHERIES. 



out to rob large extents of imleased foreshores in 

 every inlet and river of all the oysters they contained, 

 leaving hundreds of miles bare of a single live shell, and 

 whenever practicable they turned their attention to areas 

 under lease also, and cleared them of oysters in like manner. 

 "When the Act was first passed it was quite the fashion for 

 persons to acquire a lease of shore for oyster-culture. The 

 majority of these persons knew not anything, nor, indeed, 

 professed to know anything, of the science of culture, and 

 moreover, being often resident in places remote from their 

 holdings, they had not proper control of the oysters 

 which were growing naturally upon them. The result 

 was that all who chose could gather them with but little 

 risk of detection. How well these pilferers availed them- 

 selves of the opportunity thus afforded is made apparent by 

 the denuded state in which the beds and deposits appear 

 to-day. With three or four exceptions, culture in the true 

 sense of the term has not been practised at all, so that — 

 owing to droughts, the ravages of the worm, defective 

 legislation, and the still greater enemy, man himself — the 

 impoverished state of oar beds and deposits is not to be 

 wondered at. The most prolific beds, under the most favour- 

 able oyster-producing conditions, could not have withstood the 

 wreckage to which the New South Wales deposits have been 

 subjected. There is the startling fact, collected from ofiicial 

 records, that while in the year 1876 not less than 93,000 

 bushels 01 oysters which helped to supply the Victorian as 

 well as our own markets, were produced from the New South 

 Wales beds, the total quantity which could be gathered in 

 1891 was but 14,181 bushels, and for some time past New 

 South A¥ales has been receiving much of her supply from 

 outside sources. 



A remedy for this, in the shape of improved legislation 

 based on a more extended knowledge of requirements than 

 was available previously, is to hand ; the worm pest is 

 disappearing; land hitherto parched and thirsty has been 

 refreshed by copious rains ; and accounts are being received 

 of immense falls of spat and plenteous crops of brood and 

 ware. 



Accepting these as indications of the dawn of improved 

 prospects there seems ample warrant for anticipating that 

 in the immediate future the oyster-beds will not only have 

 assumed their original productiveness, but perhaps, under 



