OTSTEB CraTUBE COMMISSIOy—MINUTES OE EVIDENCE. 
2D 
Yes, you could not get 100 
Mr. P. T. 
JohuBon. 
894. Would the oyster beds we are spealiing of interfere with navigation ? 
acres in a block without going across the channel. 
895 If vessels passed over the ground would they do your oysters any harm ? Of course they would : —s 
we don t ^yant anything over our oyster beds, and vessels might get aground or lie about and do a great Noy., 187C. 
deal or injury ; it the place was once made a thoroughfare every one would go over it. 
896. But you do not look upon that as an insurmountable obstacle, because in England there must be 
constantly traffic going on over the oyster beds? Yes, but they arc in deep water, 
897. And your beds are in shallow water ? Yes. 
898. Arc they dry at low tide ? No, they are about 3 feet deep at low water. 
899. Tlien large vessels could not pass there ? dSTo. 
900. What is the rise and fall of the tide ? About! feet; there is 7 feet of water at high tide. 
901. Is there much traffic tliere ? Yes. 
902. Are you alluding to the bed of the Shoalhaven Eiver ? Yes. 
903. A^hat I wish to know is, whether you could not secure the ground free from any interference, excent 
by such navigation as must necessarily pass over it,becau8e whatever terms might he offered for it, the Grovem- 
inent could not alienate any land for purposes which impeded navigation. Could the places you speak of be 
alienated for long eases without interfering with the traffic at all ? I don’t think it would be right to let 
anything over the oyster-beds at all, because I might find it necessary to run a wall straight across, 
and when 1 got to the channel I should be done. 
90^. That is what I want to know is it possible to lease oyster-beds without interfering with the traffic ? 
I don t think so. 
905. iZbff. J. B. Wihaji.'] Are there any bays or inlets where oyster-beds could be laid down, not 
required for navigation ? There are none down my way ; we have all the oyster-beds. 
906. there any places whore oyster-beds could be formed-^ am not talking of the natural beds, I 
mean artificial beJs-m your neighbourhood? No, I don’t think there are, not of that size; I don’t 
believe you could get 50 acres anywhere. 
^ set 20 acres alongside the beach. 
903. Chairman^ Whfewoii Id be the necessity of getting 50 acr block; could not you get 20 
acres m one place and 20 or 30 more a little higher up or lower down ? How could you look after them 
if they were in separate places ? 
909 Hon. J. Supposing every caution to be taken by the Government to prevent oyster- 
stoling and robbing tto beds so that you would not have to look after them, would there still be a 
difficulty ? Oh, no ; but consider the trouble it would be to do that 
910 Have you any trouble in preventing people from stealing your bullocks or horses ? No; it might 
be done. ’ ° 
9n. Hr. Farnell.} Then as a matter of fact, there are several places that could be utilized for the purpose 
of oyster culture on the Crookhaven and Shoalhaven Rivers, in blocks of 20 acres P Yes 
912. (Fiairman.} With respect to stealing, do you think there would be much fear of the oysters being 
stolen ? I am well assured that there would be plenty of it. ^ ° 
913. Bon t you think it possible for the Government to make regulations sufficiently stringent to prevent 
it—could It not be provided that oyster-dealers should purchase from no one except those wU had 
licenses, and that a register should be kept of all they receive; and that no oysters should be transported 
from one place to another unless the person taking them had a pass, carrying out the same precautions 
as are adopted to prevent cattle-stealing: cattle cannot be driven from one place to another unless the 
drover has a pass, and a butcher must not slaughter without a license? Yes, but cattle are branded and 
oysters are not. ’ 
914. Yes, but that is not a reply to my question. I ask you if oyster-stealing could not be prevented by 
insisting that every person carrying them should have a pass. Eor instance, you are a proprietor of 
oyster-beds, and you send a pass with every lot of oysters you send in, to show that they come from your 
beds; and any person found taking m oysters without a pass would be looked upon by the police as haviim 
stolen them. Would not a precaution like that bo effectual ? AVell, supposing I had 20 acres, and another 
party liad 20 acres above me on the same river, and a third person had a similar block higher up, how 
could I swear to any of the oysters being mine? It is very easy now to say that all the oysters from 
Shoalhaven are mine, but then I should not be able to recognize them. 
915. Then, are you to have a monopoly of the Shoalhaven River for all future time? I think if two or 
more parties had a river they would always be at war, because, it would be impossible to tell where the 
oysters came from. 
916. But if the limits of the different blocks were buoyed off, would not that be a sufficient protection ? 
That would not make any difierence. Supposing I had the Shoalhaven River and another man had Crook- 
haven, could not he come down in the night and take my oysters? 
917. Then ho would be a thief? Yes, but I could not prove it; I could not watch the river all night. 
918. Then, you think that one person should retain the whole of a river ? I do. 
919. But if the rivers could be secured so that there could bo no oyster-stealing, then you think they 
might be divided into 40-acre blocks? Yes, if that could be done; but I should not like to have Crook- 
haven and another person have Shoalhaven; 1 know I should have to be up all night. You cannot swear 
to oysters the same as you can to cattle or timber. 
920. AVith regard to the spawning of oysters, is it your opinion that they spawn during certain months 
only, or all the year round ? I believe they spawn all the year round, for at low water I have seen bottles 
and stones on the beds with nothing on them, and only a fortnight afterwards I have seen them covered 
with oysters, and that too in the dead of winter. 
921. llave you any idea of the percentage of oysters that spawn? I have not, 
922. Bo you think it desirable tliat there should be a close season—^that during certain months in the year 
oysters should not be sold? I don’t see how that could be done. 
. Bo you think that oysters when not spawning are as fat and wholesome for food during the whole of 
year ? No, I think they are not. There are diiferent times for different oysters to spawn. I know 
that my deep water oysters are better in the winter than in the summer time ; while my bank oysters are 
not good in tlio winter and they are in the summer; so that if you made a close season you would have to 
shut one of them off. 
924. 
923 
the 
