118 THE OYSTEE, EISHERIES LAWS. 



them, and the same license permits the holder to dredge abandoned artificial 

 beds, or those even which have been withdrawn from lease. Such licenses 

 are granted either for twelve mouths or for three months ; for a yearly 

 license £iO a year is paid, and for the quarterly £3. This fee authorises 

 the holder and his servants, the crew of one oyster dredger, but how many 

 the Act does not say, to dredge. Oysters are taken from a variety of 

 depths by dredging — at Port Macquarie, 40 feet ; at Port Stephens, 10 to 

 41) feet ; in some places, such as the Clyde and Greorge's Elvers, when the 

 bottom is irregular and rocky, they are very successfully obtained bv divers. 

 All oysters which are dredged from natural oyster-beds by license have to 

 pay a royalty at the rate of from Is. 6d. to 4s., according to the river or bay 

 from which they come, for eA'ery bag containing 3 bushels. As these natural 

 oyster-beds would soon become exhausted if every oyster dredged were 

 taken off, it became necessary to fix on a legal size. A standard measure- 

 ment, ascertained by a ring IJ inches in diameter, is established, and any 

 oyster which will pass through such a ring is not permitted to be taken, 

 and must be returned to the bed ; if 3-bushel bags of oysters are found to 

 contain an unfair proportion of oysters below the standard diameter they 

 are seized by the Crown and confiscated. This regulation applies generally 

 to all oysters, whether taken from natural beds or off rocks or foreshore, or 

 beds laid down or artificial beds. There is a fourth provision in which 

 oysters infe}' alia can be cultivated under this 1881 Act. By Part 3 private 

 oyster fisheries are permitted to be made in this way. If any person owns 

 low-lying land in the vicinity of tidal waters, he may, by application to the 

 Minister charged with the administration of this Act, get permission to dig 

 a trench from the tidal water to his land, and let the water run in and cover 

 it. It is only permitted to dig a trench 12 feet wide for this purpose, and 

 it must be always properly bridged over. For this privilege, if granted, a 

 license is issued to the applicant for him to work it, for which he pays £10. 

 So says the introduction to the Act (see page 13), but it does not say if 

 this license is to be renewed annually. Oysters taken to market from beds 

 which have been laid down, or grown on artificial beds on the old leases 

 which have not yet expired, do not pay a royalty as those do which have 

 been dredged or taken from the natural beds. By some oversight, the 

 oysters growing on the shore, which, as before stated, means the portions of 

 the Crown lands situated betAveen mean high and mean low-water mark, are 

 not, except on the leased areas, protected by the Pisheries Act of 1881. 

 Any person can take them off the shore, whether licensed or not, and sell 

 them, provided they are of -a legal marketable diameter. Such shore oysters 

 are not even protected by closing the natural oyster beds in rivers or 

 harbours, because natural oyster beds are defined to be situated 3 feet below 

 low water-mark This is one of the many urgent reasons Avhy amended 

 legislation of the Pisheries Act should be obtained. A great uncertainty 

 exists in the minds of the public as to the conservation of our shore rock 

 oysters. I will briefly recapitulate the only way in which they can be pro- 

 tected. The Governor by notification in the Gazette can declare any portion 

 of the shore abutting on tidal waters, and being the property of the Crown, 

 to be exempt from leasing and an oyster reserve. (Peg. 35.) This will 

 protect such parts of the shore whereon oysters grow, because the line of 

 exemption begins at a point midway between very high tide and ordinary 

 high tide, termed by the Act " mean high water." Unfortunately there is 

 very little of such shore now left adjoining Grovernment land. Persons owning 

 private proj^erty abutting on tidal lands on which oysters grow, cannot stop 

 an}'- person (whether licensed or unlicensed) from taking off oysters, unless 



