314 



Oyster culture has proved successful, that the person 

 undertaking the same has obtained a concession from the 

 Government to work the beds exclusively himself, and has 

 not been hampered by other persons claiming a right to 

 fish on his grounds ; in other words, fishings are worked in 

 precisely the same way as farms, where the farmer sows 

 his seed, and at the proper season reaps his corn. 



In England the laws allow the seed to be sown and 

 protected to a certain extent, and when the molluscs are a 

 certain size (i.e., two and-a-half inches for Oysters, and two 

 inches for Mussels), the whole world is free to come and fish 

 on the beds by taking out a nominal licence, which is at 

 the rate of $s. 6d. per ton on the burden of the smack for 

 one year, or gd. per ton per month. This applies only to 

 fisheries worked under the "Sea Fisheries Act, 1868." 



To make the Oysters and Mussels the actual property of 

 some private individual or body corporate appears at first 

 sight to be rather hard on the so-called fishermen ; but it 

 must be borne in mind that any person who undertakes to 

 properly cultivate a portion of the foreshore for the increase 

 of Oysters and Mussels must be in a position to expend a 

 certain amount of capital, and therefore he would not very 

 probably do much manual labour, but confine his energies 

 to the employment of watchers or water bailiffs, to the 

 making of " lays " or " pares," by digging large reservoirs 

 between tide marks, and the various other expenses con- 

 tingent upon the enterprise ; so that the supply of molluscs 

 would be greatly increased, and the fisherman or labourer 

 employed would have more work than he has under the 

 present exhausted state of things. 



Under the "Orders" granted to the Corporations of 

 Lynn and Boston for the cultivation of Oysters and Mussels, 

 they have collectively jurisdiction over 229 square miles in 



