120 THE AUSTRALIAN OYSTER. 



bauks of our rivers a surveyor who should be specially told off to look after 

 this work, should fix definite points say at a mile distant from each other ; 

 that such blocks of tidal waters should be bounded on the shore side by high 

 water-mark or some fixed distance from it, and on the opposite side by the 

 centre of the river stream ; that an oyster capitalist should have leased to 

 him one or more of such mile wide blocks for a term say of 12 years. The 

 revenue returns for such leases may be by auction or tender, or a royalty 

 paid by the bushel on all oysters raised, and I confidently believe that this 

 plan w^ould yield a more lucrative revenue. Many of such blocks could be 

 reserved for breeding purposes, others reserved for licensed dredgers ; and 

 the oysters fringing the shores, to a certain distance from high water-mark 

 should, if on Crown lands, be kept as reserves, and Avhen on private property 

 be leased to the owners of the property for a nominal sum, which, if they 

 did not avail themselves of, should be claimed by the Crown. The recent 

 complete and overwhelming destruction of all our property involves us in a 

 momentous struggle that will require our utmost energies and persistent 

 action to overcome. Let us then act strenuously and unitedly for the great 

 cause, until we regain step by step the prosperous condition we held as it 

 were but yesterday. 



The Australian Oyster, its Cultivation and Destruction. 

 Ey James C. Cox, M.D., F.L.S., President of the Fisheries Commission. 



Foe some time past letters and articles have appeared in the press con- 

 cerning the oysters of our coasts. All seem to agree on one point, that the 

 supply of oysters is not now what it was in former years, either in quantity or 

 quality, and is certainly not suiEcient to meet present wants. Many corres- 

 pondents account for this falling off in the supply by the fact that it has 

 been permitted in past years, up to a very recent date, to take from the 

 beds every oyster which could be gathered, by any possible method, with- 

 out steps having been taken to replace the loss. Others, again, seem to think 

 that the oysters have been attacked in recent times by diseases which they call 

 the " w^orm" and the " mud disease," and in this way account for the 

 decrease; and various suggestions have been made by experienced and 

 intelligent oyster cvilturists, with regard to remedies which should be 

 adopted for the recovery of our natural supplies. The last legislative enact- 

 ment was passed to meet the desire of oyster culturists who wished to obtain 

 long leases of our foreshores reaching from a point between high and low 

 water mark to mid-channel of our estuaries along the coast from 100 to 

 2,000 yards in length. Since the Act was passed, a very large number of 

 leases has been issued, securing what, in the opinion of our oyster culturists 

 are the places most suitable for their purpose. This process has been one 

 purely of free selection, allowing them to exercise their own judgment as to 

 the best foreshores on w^hich to carry on their hopeful industry. 



I cannot say that we can congratulate ourselves on the results, so far, 

 which have been attained by this enactment. Oyster culturists have 

 endeavoured to stock their selections by taking, with permission, oysters 

 from the rocks and shallow foreshores of other parts of the coast which have 

 not been leased, and have laid these oysters down in varying positions similar 

 to those from which they were taken, and in varying depths of water — even, 

 in some instances in great depths. Others have taken the recently-formed 



