1300: SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. Jan. 
9 
mittee of any town in said county, shall appoint a committee of 
three disinterested. persons of the town within the boundaries of 
which any natural oyster, clam, or mussel beds exist, to ascertain, 
locate, and describe by proper boundaries, all the natural oyster, 
clam, or mussel beds within the boundaries of such town. Said 
committee so appointed shall first give three weeks’ notice, by ad- 
vertising in a newspaper published in or nearest to said town, the 
time and place of their first meeting for such purpose ; they shall 
hear parties who appear before them, and may take evidence from 
such other sources as they may in their discretion deem proper, and 
they shall make written designations by ranges, bounds, and areas 
of all the natural oyster, clam, and mussel beds within the bounda- 
ries of the town they are appointed for, and shall make a report 
of their doings to the superior court, and such report, when made 
to and accepted by said court, and recorded in the records thereof, 
shall be a final and conclusive determination of the extent, bounda- 
ries, and location of such natural beds at the date of such report. 
It shall be the duty of the clerk of the court to transmit to the 
town clerk of each of said towns a certified copy of said report so 
accepted and recorded, in relation to the beds of such town, which 
shall be recorded by said town clerk in the book kept by him for 
the record of applications, designations, and conveyance of desig- 
nated grounds. Such public notice of said application to the su- 
perior court, and of the time and place of the return of the same, 
shall be given by said selectmen or oyster-ground committee as 
any judge of the superior court may order. It shall be the duty 
of the selectmen of the town of Orange, and of the oyster commit- 
tees of other towns, upon a written request so to do, signed by 
twenty electors of their respective towns, to make such application 
to the superior court within thirty days after receiving a copy of 
such written request, and said applications shall be privileged, and 
shall be heard and disposed of at the term of said court to which 
such application is returned, in preference to other causes. All 
expenses properly incurred by such selectmen and oyster-ground 
committees in said applications, and the doings thereunder, and 
the fees of said committees so appointed by court, shall be taxed 
by the clerk of said court and paid by the state upon his order. 
Any designation of ground for the planting or cultivation of shell- 
fish, within the areas so established by such report of said commit- 
tee, shall be void. 
Src. 13. The selectmen of the town of Orange and the com- 
