26 
OYSTER CULTURE COMMTSSIOIT—MOTUTES OP EVTDEKCE. 
Mr. H. W. 768. And those that you saw exposed for sale were rock oysters from the Parramatta River? Tes. 
Bell. 709 they marketable oysters ? They were a mixed sample, largo and small. 
770. Are not the rock oysters generally as good as the drift oysters from the various rivers—the Clarence, 
3 ov., the Manning River, Camden Haven, and others ? Not as a rule. 
771. Can you tell the difference ? Oh yes; the rock oyster does not attain the thickness of the drift 
oyster. 
772. Do you know the little cup oyster ? Tes, well. 
773. The oyster that attaches itself to the whelk ? Tes. 
774. Are they not good ? Tes, they are some of the best. 
775. Have you had any experience in the cultivation of oysters in England ? Only in catching them.' 
776. Are you aware that mussels are injurious to oyster beds? If they are allowed to grow, but the 
ground is usually considered good for oysters where the mussel is got in England. 
777. But where there are oysters and a’large accumulation of mussels, the mussel smothers the oyster? 
Tes, it grows so much quicker than the oyster. 
778. Tou think it would be advantageous to take these small outers off the rocks and lay them down in 
fattening ground, supposing such ground cotild be obtained ? Tes, it would add greatly to the supply, 
770. Do you think the oysters from the rocks would improve under those circumstances ? Tes, it care 
were used, and they were not covered with mud. 
780. Would they thicken in the same way as oysters taken from the rivers ? They would not attain the 
same thickness, but they would improve. 
781. If these poor oysters from the rocks were put on good fattening ground, would they be superior to 
oysters which have attained perfection on the rocks ? No, I don’t think they would. 
782. Has the oyster spat, after its first emission from the oyster, many enemies ? A great many, and the 
oyster itself has also. 
783. What are its enemies ? Tarious kinds of whelk, the borer, the mussel, the star-fish, the sea-egg, 
and the stingaree. 
784. Have you found the whelk an enemy to the oyster in this country? No, but I know it is very 
numerous in Moreton Bay. In England it is found to be very injurious to the oyster, and I have no 
doubt it is so here. It is called the dog whelk. 
785. Are you speaking of the enemies to the oyster as applicable to England more than to this country? 
I think they apply to both equally. They would destroy the mud oyster much quicker than the rock 
oyster, on account of the difference in the hardness of the shell. 
786. Have you noticed that the rock oysters are finer on rocks which are perpendicular, and where there 
is very little foreshore, or perhaps none ? No, I have not noticed that. 
787. Between high and low water-mark ? Tes. 
788. Have you ever observed that the best oysters are found in sheltered places ? Toe, and where there 
is a good tide, both ebb and flow. 
789. What is your opinion with respect to giving long leases of the natural oyster beds, on condition that 
they are given uj) in an improved state ? I think it is very desirable. 
790. Are you also favourable to the issue of loug leases ot foreshores or other places suitable to the culti¬ 
vation of oysters as an encouragement to persons to produce them ? I think it would be desirable. 
791. Would you lease them in large or small blocks ? In large blocks. 
792. The beds in our rivers run patchy, I believe, do they not? Very much so. 
793. There is no continuation of oyster beds in a river, but one heie and one there? Tes, usually just 
on a point where the rocks lie. 
794. The banks of the Tiiross River I think you said are alluvial to a large extent? Tes, they are all 
covered with mud ; there are no places suitable for cultivation in that river except just along the fore¬ 
shore. 
795. Have you ever considered the way in which oysters propagate ? Each oyster produces its own kind. 
796. That is, they are hermaphrodites ? Tes. 
797. The climate of this Colony generally is favourable, is it not, to the cultivation of oysters ? ^ Oh yes. 
798. That is to say, the absence of severe winters ? Tes; the frost is injurious to them ; the rivers here 
are also sheltered. 
799. Cliainnmi.'] When you left Whitstable were you very young ? I was about twenty or twenty-two 
years of age. 
800. Then you have seen a good deal of the oyster business ? Tes—the working of that particular 
Company. 
801. Are you aware that they breed only a small portion of the oysters they fatten ? Tes, they buy 
them. 
802. They purchase them as brood or ware from various places ? Tes. 
803. Are you aware tliat men, women, and children arc employed in collecting oysters the size of a three¬ 
penny piece, wherever they can get them, to sell to the Company ? Only men and lads ; I never knew 
women and children employed in collecting them. 
804. At any rate there are a great number of persons engaged in collecting young oysters ? Tes, at 
certain times—at low spring tides. 
S05. Oysters of any size from a threepenny bit? Any size that will bear removing; the Company allow 
that privilege on their o>vn grounds; that is to say, it is allowed to their own people, but to no one else. 
806. And on the Commons ground? Any one can go there. 
807. Are you aware that the Company import brood and ware from Ireland, and also from France ? I 
don’t know about France, but I know they do from Ireland and Scotland. 
808. It is since you left that they commenced to import from France, last year I believe. Have you any 
idea of the proportion of oysters that they breed and that they fatten ? I think they purchase fully four- 
fifths. I know that one year they paid £80,000 for brood in the county of Essex. 
809. Then if they had not the opportunity of purchasing brood they would not be able to carry on their 
operations ? Certainly not. 
810. And London is principally supplied by Whitstable, is it not ? AVhitstable and other places. 
811. But the greater portion comes from Wliitstable ? Tes. 
812. The AVhftstable Company are the largest oyster fatteners in the world,! believe, at present? I think 
so—in Great Britain at any rate ; I don’t know about America. 813. 
