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protect and develop any shell-fish fishery. I beg to hope, therefore, 
that the Committee will frame and pass such a bye-law with the 
approval of the Board of Trade — a bye-law which will have for its 
aim the regulation aud protection of all kinds of bait or other shell- 
fish which may grow or may be cultivated within the district. 
Were this done, it would be possible for the owner, the tenant or 
the Committee, or the fishermen once their claims were registered 
and admitted, to prosecute anyone interfering with the beds. 
It may not be altogether premature in merely making the 
suggestion to point out that it would be necessary as far as protec- 
tion is concerned, (1) to prepare a list of existing claims to bait, 
and to add to the list such new beds as may be laid down, (2) to 
allocate the bait ground along the coast claimable by each fishing 
community ; the bye-law framed with the concurrence of the owners 
of the several fisheries would afford a protection to both classes. 
With regard to regulation, the bye-law should provide for the 
Committee being allowed (1) to prohibit the taking of mussels 
below a certain size, (2) to prohibit the taking of mussels at certain 
times, or for purposes other than fishing, (3) the defining of what 
beds or parts of beds may be used. This regulation would not 
always be desirable, but it would give the Committee the power to 
interfere if the beds were found not to be developed to the extent 
which might be expected. 
In this connection a word may be said about the development 
of tidal flats in general. 
DEVELOPMENT OF TIDAL FLATS. 
Our coast is not remarkable for its tidal flats. It consists 
of a pretty strait line of alternate rocky and sandy shores. 
But there are one or two places at present little better 
than waste, which on enquiry and investigation might be found 
to naturally support some form of molluscan life. Some of 
these, besides tbe mussel, might be encouraged by cultivation to 
yield in large measure a food, which, if a sufficient guarantee of 
purity and freedom from disease could be given, would not be 
difficult to introduce as a food resource. Experiment in this 
direction is much required. For example, it is known that a tidal 
oyster, until quite recent times grew well and spatted at any rate to 
some extent at Warham and Fenham flats. Indeed there is still a 
place in the stream of the latter place, which is known as the oyster 
scaup, and on which a number of oysters are successfully “filled,” 
