54 
OTSTEB CULTURE COMMISSION—APPENDIX. 
NOTE.—The numbered paragraphs in this and the following reports are the replies to the several questions set out in the 
fbregoing memorandum. 
KICHMOND EIVEB FISHERY. 
1. When first known abundant, and fine quality on all beds. Sec tracing, and somo others since covered by river 
deposit. 
2. Chiefly over-dredging ; minor degree by river deposit. 
3. — 
(u) Hard, sandy mud, often intermixed with finely broken shell; on slope of banks ; sometimes soft mud. 
(6) Rock only around North Head. 
(c) Specimen sent seems similar to best fattening grounds of Europe and America. 
4. See tracing. Composed chiefly of marked specimen, although patches of soil unalloyed by sand and shell occur. 
6. Quality good. None full size, as shown bv shell found around dredgers* old camps. Age, 1, 2, and 3 years. Few 
spat on beds, but abundant over low-watcr-mork on large shell mounds, at short intervals on both sides of North Creek. 
6. See tracings. 
7. End September and October, prime fat end November. Fall off when rainy season begin*—generally mid-March, but 
varies if light or escape rain. Oyster continues good till beginning September. 
8. Spat of a size to notice generally about end October and November. 
9. The fine fattening oyster-ground of Richmond certainly in moderately sized areas. 
10. Better able to answer after inspection of more rivers. 
11. So far as I have yet observed, yes; under judicious restriction rigorously enforced. 
12. No lessees, and river closed. 
Arrived hither 7 p.m., 18th instant. Received every assistance from Mr. Heniy Bassmann, resident police constable; 
also every information from Mr. Ross, J.P., Mr. Moabs, Mr. Heougli, ilr. Sparks, J.P., residents of twenty years and over; 
likewise from several aborigines. John Sinclair, Government signal-man, formerly many years dredger in Hunter, states :— 
Was sent hither, together with nine other dredgers, 1864, by Sydney dealers ; found payable bed only in North Creek (those 
marked on tracing), and two fine beds, since covered by river deposit j dredged about 1,000 bags, most of which spoiled by 
vessels being bar-bound; so, after four months—three weeks of which o^y were spent in dredging—the speculation was 
abandoned. Tliis party estimated that beds boro about 3,000 bags marketable oysters. The following year an unusual 
succession of floods destroyed many of the oyster® by means of deposit, and covered the two now extinct beds. However, next 
season spat was very abundant, and settled not only on all oongcmol spots on banks of said creek and main river, and likewise 
on every heap of discharged stone ballast (but in botli cases above low-water-mark, as at present), but also settled abundantly 
on the parent bed, which latter is not the case this year. Since then several parties similarly sent—that is, to dredge and forward 
the result at a given sum, probably 29. to Sj*. a bag—have not given beds time to recover. This system, it will be perceived, is 
calculated to prove very injurious to the beds, because it is the object of dredgers to swell the bag with young and old alike, the 
only check being the*intcrest of employer \ but that interest, save in the case of most but not all shipments to Melbourne, is 
nearly as well served by immature as mature oysters ; for excepting one or two Sydney retail vendors, the trade make as much 
or more profit getting the bag of oysters aged orje to two years at 2s. or 38. less than mature oysters ; provided there be in it 
only oysters sufficiently grown to supply the limited plate-trade they can command, the younger oyster pays better than the 
mature to bottle, espeoi^y at 3s. a bag lees, and, at such reduction, on the average it yields a very handsome profit to the 
dredger's employer. A system of restriction to size and rigorous inspection seems to be the only remedy. 
Floods which rise 25 feet and over at Liamorc, spread before reaching Wardall, or Ist sec. of this map, and thence 
to mouth average in all ordinary cases from 2 to 3 feet higlier than ordinary spring tides, and in the highest flood— 
1871, 5 March—known in the district during the occurrence of an unusually heavy eastcrlv gale, the greatest height attained 
at Ballina was only 4^ feet, but without current either in Main River or North Creek, ifence, from the greater buoyancy of 
fresh water, it is probable oysters will suffer Little, if any, from its effects, though much from extra muddiness of water, pro¬ 
ducing what is called sickness, and not, as on cultivated beds, being regularly freed by rake from accumulating dewsit. Of 
course your honorable Commission will be perfectly competent to distinguish between the sickness thus produced and tliat pro¬ 
duced by spawning operations, but wlxich I have observed the trade persistently, as a rule, no matter when it occurs, allege to 
be caused by spawning alone, probably os a basis to resist the enactment of a close season. 
However that be, on the two upper beds there is at present only a single layer of oyster, and probably 500 bags, but 
not sufficiently deep, especially as the clutch is composed chiefly of finely broken oyster-shell, and therefore neither live oyster 
nor clutch is capable of fixing the spawn as disebargi-d. Uenco the probable cause why few spat appear on the beds, wbilo the 
banks of the creek and every stone of the ballast ucaps between high and low water mark, in main river and entrances of 
creeks from Pilot Station to Wardall, are literally covered with, say, oysters aged one year and spat six weeks. I found, as 
per tracing, clumps of oysters here and there in bod of nmin river, together with mm^scl and cockle spat, but no mature mussel 
nor are residents acquainted with them, though they must somewhere exist in the river. 
Finally, I am convinced the whole of the river to Wardall, and the North Creek as well, as far as tracing 
shows, are well suited for oyster-culture, especially with such an abundant supply of tlie finest clutch so convenient 
to any portion of said water, and from the fact that scarcely a flood occurs whose deposit may not easily be cleared off the beds 
by means of the ordinary oyster-rake, while nothing could be better adapted for the formation of trenches than tho marshes, 
as marked in tracing. It may not be deemed amiss if I remark that the word is not commonly spelled cultch nor so pronounced, 
but clutch, the original idea being to clutch or seize the spawn as ejected. We have had rough weather here, which has 
slightly impeded my operations. However, I have now finished. I proceed to Clarence Heads to-morrow, but it is somewhat 
difficult to procure horses. 
I forwarded to Mr. Vcscy, agent, King-st., a small box containing specimens of soil, which may he both interesting and 
iostroctirc. I have, Ac., 
A. B. BLACK. 
Ballina, 25 November, 1876. 
CLARENCE RIVER FISHERY. ' ' 
1. I fully endorse Mr. Fraiscr’s statement, as seen by myself both herv and in America, on every bed in its natural 
state I have examined^that is, close set clumps of five or six oy.stor8 each, and two to four clumps thifk all over the bed, 
averaging about eighteen mature oysters bt'sides spat on every 5 square inchen, over an luibroken bed of shell on a tolerably 
hard bottom, similar to specimen No. 2. Further, this is the condition of bed most suitable for retaining spat. 
2. By over-dredging, slightly affected by flood deposit — which, liowcver, is entirely preventable during floods by uaing the 
common English oyster-rake—last-quarter ebb and first-quarter flood. But this unplics proper culture and one or two men 
employed per acre, which, however, the result would fully justify at even a less price than that at present obtained. Second query. 
To a very aeriou.s extent. The operation of the heavy bow-ilredge used and manner of uae, viz.:—Fixing a pole in bed and dropping 
boat tlieiicc with tide 30 or 40 fathomf», the Icngtli of a line fast to a wndlass in boat's bow ; then wlicn dredge is cast, heaving up 
to said stake will obviously — especially when the oyster is scarce on the bed—have the effect of deeply furrowing the natural bed 
or clutch, and drag together oyster and clutch in its way into the boat, wound up to thi* stake, leaving at least large patches of 
the under eti-atuin of soil bare, therefore quite unfit to bear oysters, much leas spat, until again coveretl over by shell. While 
around the stake the refuse callings of clutch arc accumulated in heaps ; the boat is sbecred across tide when dropping from 
stake, in order to vary the furrow and widen the scope. Manifestly then, each successive dbrtjdging lessens the reproductive 
power 
