0X8TEE CULTURE COMMISSION—APPENDIX, 
59 
13. As to improTcmeuU none, unless resting fclio bed on account of tlio unmarketable age of oyster, and that of taking 
oysters off one bed and laying tliem down on another, whicli indeed may improve the gain of lessee, but certainly in no shape 
or way tends to improve the bed or oyster-ground; that is, the landlord cannot possibly benefit by any such process. 
Memo.—As remarked in a former report, a fair clutch-bed is barring the present crop as intrinsically valuable as an 
oyster-bed, and if in a better situation for the puri)o»(‘s of culture more ralimble. I Cud it very difficult to get suitable boats 
and men, and also conveyance from one river to another, not to mention the cost. A small craft—steam-lamich or sailing 
vessel, suitably fitted for the juirposc—will be indispensable to the proper management of the fishery, the value of wliich 
would amply jiistify the cost. I find residents obliging in every res})ect, and express great interest in the matter; but consider 
themselves siggrievcd by the present system of leasing, and by restrictions on the use of oysters; while old dredgers complain 
bitterly on liaviiig their means of livcliliood taken from tliem to invest in a monopoly placed in the hands of a few Sydney 
dealers. Mr. Andrew Darber has afforded me. in a very kind manner, any assistance I retiuired, and every information asked 
for at Mr. James’ request. HU statement enclosed evidently bears the impress of truth ; I wrote it at his own dictation. 
I have, &c., 
A. B. BLACK. 
I have been regularly engaged in dredging for the last ten years, and previously at intervals for thirty years. For the 
past twelve mouths I have been in charge of these bods for Sir. James—prior thereto, engaged for six months by Mr. Gibbon 
on the Clyde. 
I, as a young man, got oysters on tlio Parramatta River; of late years, regularly. Manning, Camden Haven, Capo 
Hawke, Clarence, and at lirisbane. I was one of tlio very fir.st workers of tlio Camden JIaven beds, and their first condition 
was as follows, viz.:—J had to work a stake ilow-n into tlie mud through oysters and shell. The bed was 3 or 4 feet deep at 
low-w'ater. Attached a 35-fathom warp to ibU .stake, ainl worked from it day by day of six hours each, for at least twenty 
days. At first bad lo weight tlie dredge heavily, and then only got in a tide perhaps half a bag of oysters, until bed waa 
“ broken up” ; then fr‘)nj llio same spot, about onc-tliird of a circle, shearing (as the direct line from stake was worked out) 
with flood on ebb lo aforesaid distance in all, and in that space I dreilged regularly ten bags a day—that is, 200 bags off that 
spot. Then removed stake lo aiiotlier s])ol, un<l thereon got the same quantity in the simie time. This was the manner and 
this the average of about five boats for Fully two yeiirs—in fact, until the bed got thoroughly skinned in the third year, when 
all of them left, wlum no more than two to three bags could bo got per day. 
I rotum*d when said l)c<l was supposed to have recovennl, in about three years time; found the ground pretty well 
covered, but in an exactly similar space to that above stated could never get in a day more than three or four bags, and then 
every dredgeful eonlainod only a few clumps of five or six oysters each, amongst ImU a bushel of shell, chiefly cockles. This 
is also wliat mv fellow-divdgrrs exi)erioiiecil, nnd also wliat 1 have hearil to be the ease on every otlier bed at first and second 
working ; and precisely what I experienced when T worked on the Manning beds for the first time. From reliable information 
the same facta were experienced in about 1869. 1871, when this Macquarie bed was first worked after a very long 
iuterval; and the condition of tlie bed now is that it is pretty well covered with oysters of two nnd one year growth, not fit 
for anotlier year or two for market, with very few marketable oysters amongst them ; and ae in that case, i.e., Camden Haven, 
in 35 fathoms not inoi’c than half a dredge-full of oysters can be obtained, there being only a single layer, and considerable 
intervals between the clumps; but the bed is not only improving, but extending ; and also fine clean clutch beds about the 
main bed, and also in other parts of the river. I have sent up to Mr. James in tlie twelve months I have been here only about 
100 bags of oysters, and.liavo shifted on to the main bod about 100 bags—part from bed in Limeburners’ Creek, and part from 
dam-bed udjoiuiiig Port Macqmirie—chiefly tidal oysters ; wliich, however, do not grow so well as those would taken from 
deep-water bed.s. , . v i 
' Spaicniaq .—The old oysters are about spawning now, but those of one or two years* growth have no appearance of 
spawning. On all the beds named my experieuce leaiLs me to btdieve that spawning commeuces beginning November and finishes 
in Febnmi*y» provided fn*siie-H nor other unfavourable weather occur, wliich may delay the process a little longer; but in no 
case have 1 noticed anything resembling spawning at other times of the year. Therefore, I bdieve a close season during those 
TuontUs would prove favourable to the beds, in order to jicnnit the young oyster to liardoii sufficiently lo resist the action of 
the dredge. 
When the beds of the ^ilanning were leased, we, the drcdger.s thereon, conceived it to be a great liardship to bo thrown 
so completely out of employment, and without Avarning. Accordingly, wo got up a jietition to Government against leasing, 
signed by all the Manning dredgers (about thirty), and by perhaps sixty re.ridents, settlcra, &c., m*1io benefited more or less by 
the dredgers and their families. HoAvever, the petition appears not to have been noticed, and since that time neither I nor 
any of lu)' fellow-dredgers who signed the same liavo made anything like ii living thereat; but most of them, much against 
their AviU, were forced into other employments like myself, who have to eke out a living, together Avith a grown-up son, by 
siiAA'ing, &c. But I have hung on here, expecting that perhaps next summer, Avhen a fair quantity of oysters become market¬ 
able, 1 inav earn a tolerable living thereat. 
I should bo glad to leaj^J ground for culture, especially on a lease sufficiontlv long (o justify cxpomlituro of time to 
bring it into a fair state of culture; for I have great faith in oyster-cidture, especially from the mode in AvhicU I have noticed 
the natural eitensiou of the Avorkod-out natural beds, as also the extension of oysters on clean clutch-btHls. 
I Imve, Ac., 
ANDREW BARBER. 
CAMDEN HAVEN FISHERY. 
1. T cannot give a hotter answer than that contained in the statement of Barber, in charge of Port Macquarie Fishery, 
confirmed by residents of this district, and by Bird, now a dredger here, and at that time employed on the beds—namely: 
that- a man would Avork his warp-stake into the bed and not leave that spot for sixteen or tAveiity days, getting ten to fifteen 
b'lf^s a-day all that time ; and that, for a long time ten to twelve and even fifteen boats Avero so employed, until only three or 
foiir bags could be got, when all left one after the other. Some came back in about three years, only to pt at most six or 
seven liags ; worked until that also dAviiidled to tAvo or three bags u-day; also, that the oyster since obtained has not been near 
so good as those obtaimnl at first. r *• , i i • n i x- i i 
3. By over-dredging, most assuredly ; and as far as I can liiul, by trying the bottom,—a comparatively easy and accurate 
process in thw shalloAA' Avator,—very lUtle'by silt, either flood or .•^ca. 1 find an exactly similar condition of the clutch-bed 
and dUpo!-ition of theoy.stcr as on the otlier beds examined, viz.'I’he clu1ch-b«t furrowed, and long strips of mud between 
and in mtebes—clutch 'filled up in some iilaces a foot or two <lecp, nnd oyster lying in streaks and patclies, and many parts 
only isolated clump.s, Avliere originally they must have laid many clumps deej) all over the bed. This state of the clutch may, 
hoAvever, be easily remcKliod under culUire, by raking the clutch. 
' (a) The hanks of the river, creeks, and lakes (excepting Avhorc^ rocky spurs from the North Brothers enter on 
north side of Taylor and south side of Q.ucens Lakes, also about i mile in front and above Lauristown), 
arc composed in some jmrts as all the south-east portion of Lake Taylor, h mUo on left bank of North Creek, 
bank running along ovsU^r-bed in said crock, round bay at upper cud of said creek and south and west sides of^ 
deep buy at heads, of the friable, ehoeolate-colourcd sandy mud rock, comuioEf to all these fiBherics already* 
examined, only more blockish; in most all the other iiortioiei of bank is blackish unctuous clay or soil, and shell 
in beds fi*om a'few inches to 2 and 3 feet on all the level land. In digging foimdation of saAv-mill, 6 feet below 
surface, went t hrough a pura slicll-bed 3 feet thick, (Xickles and oysters. Avhich seems to extend under the whole, 
of the site of townsliip. Bi*ds in river (excepting the outer KhI in bay at heads, marked by a black-ink line 
Avliich consists of a hard bcsl of Avare-drifi sand, Avhich. as informed, has not ultored materially during past 
fourteen years) are coinposetl of either hard or soft sandy mud and sliell, as indeed is the bottom generally, save 
spots of soft mud in parts of lakes and channel of river; all excellent oyster ground. 
(/>) None of the beiL Avithout clutch contain oysters, but the banks in some parts arc covered by tidal oysters. 
(c) None of the beds are of pure mud—always mixed, as already stated ; but the subsoil—or rather, in many beds 
a 8ub-8tratuin of the common black unctuous soil—lies from an inch or two to eeveral feet under the common 
sandy 
