120 NEW SOUTH WALES 
tremendous losses of spat and oysters in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 
but from the negligence and greed of the cultivators. The Royal 
Commission (Ireland, 1870) say in their Report: There is no reason to 
doubt that the decline in production (in France) is to be attributed to 
the neglected state of the collectors, and also to the selling of too many 
of the parent oysters, and thus annihilating to a considerable extent the 
source of spat. This, the Commission say, is admitted by the proprietors 
themselves, who have found their expectations to get spat without 
parent oysters to be delusive, and they are now taking means to renew 
the stock of oysters and collectors. The selling of their breeding oysters 
is but a repetition of the old story of killing the goose that lays the 
golden eggs. But now the tide has turned, and the French having 
learned by bitter experience not to trust solely to their fine climate and 
great natural advantages, have put their shoulders to the whéel, and by 
skill and industry have turned the bountiful gifts of Providence to good 
account. Like causes can never operate in New South Wales to injure 
the oyster industry, from the fact that there are many localities where 
marketable oysters cannot be profitably dredged for consumption, but 
where spat can at all times be obtained in any quantity. 
“ Mr. Farrar, Secretary to the Board of Trade, in the evidence he gave 
before the said Select Committee of the House of Commons (1876), 
said :—‘Mr. Pennell was sent by the Board of Trade, in 1868, to inspect 
the French oyster fisheries, and he gave a most melancholy account of 
them—nothing could be worse. The Irish Commission confirmed that 
melancholy account; but now it appears from the official returns of the 
French Government (1876) that the production has enormously 
increased. At Marennes the private cultivators have been enormously 
successful ; at Cancale the value of the oysters produced had risen from 
97,375 francs in 1869 to 720,800 francs in 1874. The octriculturists, 
who have established parcs on the banks of the Auray, gather consider- 
able quantities of young oysters in their collectors, and many of them 
have already realized important profits. Many of the proprietors of 
pares are embarrassed by the abundance of their produce.’ Mr. J. A. 
Blake, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, in the evidence he gave before the 
said Select Committee (1876) said :—‘ French oysters will cause a great 
revolution in the oyster trade in England ; so that we need to care very 
little about our own production at all, but look more to the fattening,’ ” 
The official value of the oyster produce in France for 1873 was given 
as follows :—2,477,565 francs. The dredging in the ports of Granville, 
Cancale, and L’Orient, produced in 1873 nearly 13 million oysters, 
against over 4 million and a half in the previous year ; in 1874 it was 
‘13 million and a half. From the official statement lately published, the 
following statistics are given for the commerce in oysters in France, for 
the season from the Ist Sept. to 30th April :— 
Oysters taken from the beds. Value, Price per 1,000. 
1874... 104,731,350... ... 7,727,000 francs. ... 73°78 francs, 
1875... 227,640,212 ... ... 11,247,416 ,,  ... 49°40, 
1876... 335,774,070 ... ... 18,226,296 ,, ve 39°39 
This shows the enormous increase of the production and the con- 
sequent lowering of the price, but not proportionately, for though the 
on increased more than three times the price did not fall to 
one-half, 
