30 
OTSTEE CITLTTJEE COMMISSIOIT—MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 
924. Hon. J. B. Wilson.’] The beds you are working on at Shoalhaven are the original natural oyster-beds, 
are they not ? Most of them. 
925. And you have improved them by laying down timber and other hard substances? I have. 
17 Kov., 1876. 926. And you have succeeded well ? Yes. 
927. !N'ow, in the greater portion of your lease, could not the mud at the bottom be overcome by 
laying down waste shells, wood, and other material, upon which oysters would thrive ? Yes, but that 
takes time, 
928. Supposing you had a lease of fifty years, could not that be done ? Yes, but there is such a depth of 
mud that it would take a deal of stuff to make a hard bottom. 
929. In what part of the Shoalhaven Eiver, and at what distance from the sea do you find your oysters 
fatten best ? About 3 milos from the sea. 
930. ^Yhere they have a certain quantity of fresh water mixed with the salt ? Yes, where the water is 
too salt they fatten, but they do not grow large. 
931. Nearer the sea? Yes, we get the smallest oysters nearer the sea; we shifted some of those little 
oysters when they were no bigger than your nail, and nine months after they were shifted they were five 
times their size ; they increased from an inch to 3 inches diameter. 
932. What age were they do you think when you took them ? Numbers of years old ; I could not say 
how many. 
933. They were full-grown oysters ? Yes. 
934. And when you moved them higher up the river they immediately commenced to grow and fatten ? 
Yes. 
935. How long do you require to let them lay before you take them up ? About twelve months. 
936. Supposing you had taken spat about six or nine months old, knocked off the rocks, and laid them 
down, how long would it have been before they were fit for market ? About eighteen months, provided 
they were put in with a good heavy tide. 
937. But would not they be much better after three or four years ? The shell would be bigger, but I don’t 
think the oyster would be better. 
938. The oyster comes to maturity, under favourable circumstances, in about two years, does it not ? Yes. 
939. What is about the diameter of a well-grown oyster from the Shoalhaven Eiver; would it go through 
a 25 -inch gauge (ring 2^ inches diameter eoMbited) ? Yes, I don’t think I have an oyster that would not 
go through that ring. 
940. Take up one of the rings before you which you think about the size of a Shoalhaven oyster? You 
mean the average size of the oysters ? 
941. Yes, what you think would be a fair average size? I think this (taking up a ring inch diameter) 
is about the size, because mine are all long oysters. 
942. Do you think any restriction should be placed by the Government on the sale of young oysters, or 
\ oysters of inferior size ? Yes, I think there should be a restriction against the sale of young oysters; but 
as to the size I think it is impossible for any man to tell that. 
943. Don’t you think it would be safe to prohibit the sale of any oysters that would not pass through a 
ll-inch ring ? Three-parts of the Shoalhaven oysters would go through that ring; they are most of them 
long oysters, years and years old ; a great number of them would go through a IJ-inch ring. 
944. Are they oysters that would readily sell in the market ? Yes, they are what we call .whelk oysters. 
945. Why do you call them whelk oysters ? They grow on the whelk. 
946. Are there many of that kind in the Shoalhaven Eiver ? Yes, beds of them. 
947. Are the oyster beds in the Shoalhaven improved since you took them ? Yes ; when I took them I 
did not know where to get a bag of oysters. 
948. Did you commence at once to lay down oysters ? Yes; I was months and months laying them 
down, with three boats working all day. 
949. Then you have found it profitable ? Yea. 
950. I am very glad to hear it ? I am now bedding them in the channel. 
951. Have you ever attempted to make artificial beds on land which is dry, or partially so, at low water ? 
Yes. 
952. Were you successful? Yes, we have taken out some very good oysters. 
953. Is there not plenty of ground in the Clyde and Tuross Eivers of the same character—nearly dry at 
low water—that could be utilized in the same way ? No doubt there is; to have oysters all the year round 
you require to have them at low-water-mark, because the sun does the oysters a great deal of good. 
954. A little of it ? Yes, the morning sun. 
955. Mr. Farnell.] You speak of the Shoalhaven Eiver being 12 miles in length; how many natural 
oyster beds are there in that length ? Pive. 
956. And what is about the extent of each bed ? I think they are all about one length—about 100 yards. 
957. By what width ? About 60 feet. 
958. Where are they situate—in the channel ? Eight in the channel, on a bar that runs across the 
river. 
959. What is the nature of the soil in these natural beds ? It is a rocky bottom. 
960. In the Crookbaven Eiver how many natural beds are there ? Well, I call it all a bed, because it is 
all beach except in one place ; there is about half a mile of dredge oysters. 
961. That is, oysters taken out of the channel? Yes, that is what I call abed; I do not call a few oysters 
here and there a bed ; what I call a bed is where a man can dredge. 
962. You say that you leased about 50 acres from the Government for the purpose of cultivating oysters ? 
Yes. 
963. What was the nature of the bottom in that lease ? Mud and shell. 
964. What was the depth of the water ? Part of it is dry at low water. 
965. Is the ground sufficiently firm for persons to walk upon it and attend to the oysters ? Part of it. 
966. Then, I understood you to say that in respect to this particular 50 acres which you have leased for 
cultivating oysters, you collect the brood or spawn from other places and lay them down there to grow and 
fatten ? Yes. 
967. I understood you to say that it is not very profitable ? It is not, unless you have other places from 
which you can get oysters to send to market. 
968. You could not make a living out of the 50 acres alone ? No. 
Mr. P. T. 
Johnson. 
969. 
