72 CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 



capital invested ia taking and distributing the moUusks from either 

 natural or artiiicial beds, or who may dig mollusks for food or 

 bait purposes for their own or family use. 



2. The fishermen, who, either as a permanent or temporary 

 vocation, market the natural yield of the waters; or who, as in 

 the case of the shellfisheries, may with little capital increase the 

 natural yield and availability by cultivating an area of the tidal 

 flats after the manner of a garden. 



3. The riparian owners of the flats, who, however, are subject to 

 the public rights of fishing, fowling and boating, and who under 

 the present laws are often subjected to loss, annoyance or even 

 positive discomfort, by inability to safeguard their proper rights 

 to some degree of freedom from intruders, and from damage to 

 those bathing or boating facilities which constitute a definite por- 

 tion of the value of their shore property. 



4. The capitalist, who seeks a productive investment for money 

 or brains, or both. Under present laws, such are practically re- 

 stricted to distribution of shellfishj except in the case of the oyster, 

 where capital may be employed for production as well, — an obvious 

 advantage both to capital, to the fishermen and to the public. 



All these classes would be directly benefited by just laws, which 

 would encourage and safeguard all well-advised projects for arti- 

 ficial cultivation of the tidal flats, and would deal justly and 

 intelligently with the various coincident and conflicting rights 

 of the fishermen, owners of shore property, bathers and seekers 

 of pleasure, recreation or profit, boatmen, and all others who hold 

 public and private rights and concessions. 



That any one class should claim exclusive "natural and valid 

 rights," over any other class, to the shellfish products of the shores, 

 which the law states expressly are the property of " the people," 

 is as absurd as to claim that any class had exclusive natural rights 

 to wild strawberries, raspberries, cranberries or other wild fruits, 

 and that therefore the land upon which these grew should not 

 be used for the purpose of increasing the yield of these fruits. This 

 becomes the more absurd from the fact that the wild fruits pass 

 to the owner of the title of the land, while the rights to take shell- 

 fish are specifically exempted, and remain the property of the 

 public. 



The class most benefited by improved laws would be the fisher- 

 men, who would profit by better wages, through the increased 

 quantity of mollusks which they could dig per hour; by a better 

 market and by better prices, for the reason that the control of the 



