THE OYSTER FISHERIES LAWS. 117 



became. No doubt the lessees, for their own interests, did lay down oysters 

 very largely on the old natural oyster-beds, but they did not lay them down 

 as they do now ; they attempted, in fact, to replenish the natural oyster- 

 beds composed of our drift oysters with the oysters clinging to the rock's and 

 other objects on exposed tidal lauds. The artificial laying down of oysters 

 was not then carried on with the success wliich it is now, by removing 

 oysters from the rocks or other parts of exposed tidal land and placing 

 them in more favourable positions. This state of things continued until 

 1880, when a Commission was appointed to inquire into and reporti upon 

 the actual state and prospects of the fisheries of the Colony, and on the 

 Eeport of this Commission, so ably drawn up by the Hon. AVilliam Macleay, 

 the Fisheries Act of 1881 became law. Under the 28th section of this 

 1881 Act any person can lease 25 acres of tidal waters for thirty years, the 

 boundaries of which have to be marked by poles or buoys. The Act is 

 indefinite as to the shape of these leases, though the regulations infer the 

 boundary lines of leases should be at right angles to the tide, but the 25 

 acres so taken up must not include a natural oyster-bed, which means, 

 " Any bank, bed, or place of deposit in any tidal waters wherein oysters 

 which have not been laid down by artificial means are, or shall be, found ; 

 but excluding rocks, stones, mangroves, or other trees or dead timber, or 

 any other substance above mean low water-mark whereon oysters are, or 

 may be, found attached or growing." It gives permission to take up this 

 acreage to any extent of shore frontage, provided that this shore frontage 

 has not been alienated by the Crown ; it does not restrict the lessee from 

 going out any distance he chooses from the shore into any depth of Avater ; 

 the lessee may surround a natural oyster-bed, by his acreage, but he must 

 not work it. Although persons may lease land below the mean line of low 

 water-mark by this 29th section, for the purpose of foi^ming oyster-beds or 

 laying such, this right is somewhat obscured by the 7th subsection of the 

 same, which says " that occupation under such lease shall not give any right 

 or title to form oyster-beds nor layings on the shore, nor to occupy or use 

 any portion thereof not included in his lease, except as prescribed by the 

 regulations," of which there are none. I might explain here that the word 

 "shore" is defined by the Act to mean the portion of Crown land situated 

 between mean high and mean low water-marks ; or, in other words, is that 

 portion of tidal land commencing from a point midway between very high 

 water-mark and ordinary high water-mark, and extending out to a greater or 

 less distance to a point midway between very low water-mark and ordinary 

 low water-mark. Por this lease 5s. an acre is paid for the first four years, 

 and 20s. an acre for the remainder of the time. Section 32 provides that if 

 any person owns, leases, or occupies land bounded by tidal waters, he may 

 take up the water opposite his laud, commencing from between mean high 

 water-mark and a line approximately parallel thereto, and extending out 

 from the last-named point to a depth of 3 feet of water at low spring tide j 

 the lessee or owner of such land can take up the whole water frontage 

 opposite to his land outwards to the depth mentioned, by paying £1 a year 

 for every 100 yards frontage or ]iart thereof in length ; he can only make 

 use of this tidal water land lor laying down oysters artificially on the natural 

 surface of the shore, or forming artificial beds for oysters to grow on. The 

 two forms of leasing mentioned refer only to Crov.n tidal lands on which 

 oysters may be laid on natural surfaces, or on which oysters can be laid 

 down on artificially made beds. A special law is provided to work the 

 natural oyster-beds composed of drift oysters ; they are not leased at all, 

 but persons are licensed under the 30th section of the 1881 Act to dredge 



