400 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Bcport 
Is. 5d. accrued from oyster leases, and <£755, 10s. from licenses for fisher- 
men (908 in number), and for fishing- boats (388). In the Reports a 
number of statistical tables are given, showing the quantities of fish 
brought to Sydney market, &c. The value of these in 1889 was £34,311. 
Several attempts have been made to introduce trawl-net fishing into 
Australian waters. In recent experiments the net used w^as an immense 
patent otter-net, with an expansion of mouth of about 200 feet, and a 
total length of 360 feet. This huge engine is worked between two steam 
vessels, as in the case of the Spanish system {Arte del Bou). 
In the records of the Australian Museum are given the results of a 
research by Mr Thomas Whitelegge into a worm disease of the Australian 
oyster, which was made at the request of the Commissioners of Fisheries 
of Is'ew South Wales. The disease is caused by the presence of a small 
worm, Polydora (Lucodore) ciliata, which, in the larval condition, enters 
the oyster and forms a tube of mud, which is soon covered up by a layer 
of shelly deposition secreted, by the oyster. Many of these worms may 
be present in one oyster ; hence the ettect of the blister-like structures is 
gradually to fill up the space, and the oyster is reduced to * a mere skin,' 
incapable of secreting any shelly matter. Entire oyster-beds on some 
parts of the coast of New South Wates are thus affected, especially those 
on mud flats about low water, and the artificial beds in deep water. The 
latter are composed of oysters from the mangrove flats, which are also 
infested with the worm. The remedy recommended, is to remove the 
oysters and keep them dry for ten days or so, which suffices to kill the 
worm, and then to replace them. 
Port Jackson Harbour, at Sydney, was visited for a few months at the 
beginning of the present year (1891) with a plague of Infusoria (Pm- 
dinium), which discoloured the water and killed immense numbers of 
young oysters, limpets, periwinkles, crabs, &c. Nearly all the oysters and 
mussels were destroyed, and annelids, cchinoderms, polyzoa, &c., suffered 
more or less ; so that fish disappeared and the shores stank. Public 
attention was strongly aroused on the subject, and one good result of the 
visit of the Peridinium will probably be the establishment of a marine 
biological station at Sydney, which is recommended. 
V. NEW ZEALAND. 
The Marine Department of the New Zealand Government have been 
good enough to send us copies of their Annual Reports for the last five 
years, and other publications. In a special report f certain investigations 
into the abundance of edible fish in New Zealand waters are described, 
and there is much interesting information as to the native fish and the 
methods of fishing. It may be noted that the anchovy {Engraulis 
encrasichohis) is found in New Zealand waters. The most important of 
the fishing industries is that for oysters. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, 
the natural beds have been much injured by excessive fishing. The New 
Zealand Government have closed various of the more important beds for 
periods of years, with beneficial results for a brief time. The Assistant- 
Secretary (Mr Lewis H. B. Wilson) puts the matter tersely : — ' I desire 
* again to draw attention to the desirability of legislating so as to preserve 
* our oyster-beds It would appear that one of the most feasible 
* Records of the Australian Museum, edited by the Curator, Dr E. P. Ramsay, 
vol. i., No. 2, Sydney, 1890. 
t Papers relating to the Development of Colonial Industries, ' I. Fisheries, I — H ' 
15, Wellington, 1885. 
