OTSTEE CULTTTEE COiTMISSIOK—AEPENDIX. 
65 
bfiff cqt)al to ten times tbal required to fill a hag of marketable oysters. lienee, tlicrcfore, we would bo required to pay at 
least fully ten times more for spat than would bo obtainable in Sydney for the grown oyster ; but, knowing our necessity, 
would such men be at all likely to sell even at this rate ? Obviously in any way we M ould bo at their mercy! Cvnsequcntly, 
unless some special and strict reservation of beds be made for tbc sole ]>iiri)osc of enabling the leaseholder to siqiply himself 
with young stock, what advantage would the leasehold be to the individual ? But should it be seen mlvisable to grant 
licenses, I submit that licenses should he granted for one fisliery cUsIriet only, and in such number only as that district will 
bear ; and of course if licensee desire to remove charge in addition, a similar fee for the district rcmovecl to, A'iz. : £10 or £20 
■which ia not too much for an oyster license. Lessees also should be )>ermitted to hold license?, /. e .— if licenses ho granted. 
JOHN llVaUKS. 
SlG>'AL-MASTEE John Pennington’s Slatemcut. 
From 1831 I had occasionally traded to Cape Hawke, hut in 1850 I came to reside., engaged by Mr. John Booth to punt 
shingles, &c., to traders ; tlicreafter engagetl by Govorunicnt as Signal-master. 
° Forty-five years ago we got only cellar, and crew generally took a few bags of oysters. Then the bar was closed, and 
had been iil? long as the blocks could remember, consequently we loaded outside, and only came when a cargo was ready for 
hliipmont. In 1H48 or 1849 the bur iras opened by a heavy flood, but not tilt 1859 was there depth of water to cross, and in 
that year ! took the first vessel over it. Thenccforwaitl depth bus continued pretty steady over eight nud nine feet, excepting 
an occasional intciTuplion of only a single neap-tide. i t -rr 
Forly-fivo and forlv years ago we had discovered SIX or seven of the eleven beds which now produce oyster?. How¬ 
ever, only on No. 1 bed, and a few tidal oysters on be:idi in front of jire.^ent fownslup, did mo find any ; but in 1859 several 
of the beds had got stocked, and in Octolicr or November, 1872, all the shell bods not in the lake, excepting that numbered 
12, were more or less well stocked, as follows Before 18Gt>:— ■, j • i 
No. 1 boil was the only one slocked forty-five years ui^o M*hcn bar was closed, but in 1859 it had been silted with sandy 
mud and shell. In 1872 however, it liad come iu for a small share of the crop, and since then a few clumps are 
found on it. Proliably this bed had been silted in tl:e rush of water when bar M as opened, as it just lies in the way. 
No. 2,—througli wliich Oovcniment cutting rmis—was iu 1859 covered two or three tiers deep iu many parts by good 
lalcablo oysters, but skinned ns clean ns a whistle in 1864. 
No. 3.1 speak of (1859) ns M oll stocked as above. 
No. 4. Fairly stocked, not near the quantity, but finer quality. 
No. 5. Not maiiv, but larger and better shaped, aud fine quality. 
No. 6. Small patch, fow oysters, but superior quality. 
No. 7. A clump here aud there, apparently bcgioning to form a bed. 
No. 8. None for some years later. 
No. 9. None for some years later. 
No. 10. Small bed, finest oyster in fishery, three and four tiers deep. 
No. 11. Only hero and there a clump, apparently in process of forming. 
No. 1*^. None, nor any yet, though as promising a bed as tbc best. While trading for cedar we got a few bags each 
* trip off No, 1. and from 1859 I occasionally send up a few got off the most convenient bed. 
In 1868 1 found, iu all, three bugs on No. 9, which 1 sent to Mr. Clarke, Market-street. I asked only lOs., but the 
oyster was so superior that ho was extremely eager to get more, but I searched iu vain, yet in December, 1872, this bed was 
covered with young oysters. 
In 186*3 about nine ovstornicn c.amo up from Sydney, gatliered them up in baskets and got blacks to cull on the shoife, 
leaving the small ashore to t\ie. About the middle of 1804 tbc beds wox'c completely skinned, when they left. These men 
cot 23. 6d. a bag, and Mr. John Booth liad a contract to convey them in bulk to Sydney at the rate of 3s. a bag. 
^ * jf I remember rightly, no oysters again appeared until about Christmas 1800, and after that the beds got again well 
covered, but Tiot so well as before 1863, nor so well as in 1872. 
in 1869, about July, eighteen or tvrenty men came over from the Mamiing, and by April or May, 1870, had cleared 
everv bed of old aud young alike, excepting small pockets here and there, about the edges of the beds which were overlooked, 
and those trodden into the mud, which for some time afterwards kept three or four of resident oystermen going till they were 
eventually starred off. 
In December, 1872, to the surprise of evcjy one, the beds were noticed to be covered with a thick crop of young oysters 
the size of sixpence, and now for the first time No. 9 bed, on mIucU in 1868 I could get only three bags, was also densely 
covered, but none on No. 12, tliough as before observed, ns likely a bed as any. 
In 1873 beds M ere leased, and soon after, although oysters were very small, two boats Mere set to work on No. 4 bed. 
These boats, with only a month or two intennission iu the winter, Imve been M'orking ever since. Now only two beds, which 
liave been little worked, appear to have anything on them; one of them is the large bed No. 2—the sjiawning of 1872—which 
lias not vet attained to maturity, or to the size that oysters were l>eforc the skinning of 1863. However, although there are not 
BO many on it as before that time, yet I have never seen a bed like it excepting those flat.s inside of Tomtu point, south side 
of Botanv Bav, of many acres extent, covered several tiers deep, sixty years ago, when I and nine others were engaged burning 
lime off it for Mr. Street, who had the Government contract to supply lime. 
Spatc'ttinq. _I am sorry to say, now I see the importance of the question, that I have not taken much notice of spawning, 
indeed 1 never kiiew a dredger who did. However, when I think of it, it seems to mo tliat, as in this case of Cape Ifawke, 
file spawning id prolific only every other year, as in 1866 and 1872, when, as aforesaid, a moat abundant crop had covered the 
beds before any W knew. I am perfecUy certain of that of 1872, and of the kind of weather at the time, but not so clear 
whether the other in 1866 or 1867. but whichever the year 1866 or 1867, I am positive the w eather was simUar to that of 
1872 unusually strong north-easterly wimls, /.e., black north-easters, thick overcast weather seaward, but dry, and generally 
moderate at night; whereas the oiiUuary summer weather hera is lightish north-east to south-east winds, and a stiff souther now 
aud then, aud at times a heavy tlmuder-showcr or a few hours’ rain from south-east. „ , . , 
I am also positive that spawning must take place, if not at the same time nearly at the same time, over all llio beds, at 
least on this fishery though not at the sfline time every year, as that of the most remarkable must have occurred early in 
November wliilc the othera, excepting that of last year, occur some time in January. Those like myself who live pretty much 
on an oyster and lish diet, can readily tell the time, for then for a fow wwks before, the niilkmes.s of Uie oysters is general, and 
allatoiicc ciiuallv as general, the oyster becomes watery and flabby. However, on all the beds an oyster hero and there is 
found which has neither been milky nor lost its eomUtion all thi-ough the season of general spawning, Tnci ^ 
ujiu wuivii _ _ _ -- ” - - Bast year, however, 
the ovsTorwusTv'muvh^ from the winter of 1875 until this season’s spawning took place, end of January, 
1877'^ I mieht have noticed more of the habits of oysters, for my cxi>ericiice of them has extended over a period of sixty years, 
bein£r8inco l 812 iniheColony, and aged iwentv-throe when I arrived, and for years, at the lime before mentioned, 1 was 
constantlvcmploycdamongsttbom, chiefly on the Bouthern shores of Botany Bay, where the bnvs to just withm George’s 
River were deiiscly covered to sii extent 1 have not seen equalled, yet I have seen most of the beds in the Colony. Xhen, how¬ 
ever ovsLcrs were only thought of for liaic-biiniing ; and nearly all Government buildings lliroughout the Colony were supplied 
therefrom It has only been the result of the tno several skiimings referred to leaving scarce an oyster to be got, winch lias 
Dfirticuiarly forced the subject on my notice, and the result is that only two seasons, viz., cither 18b6 or 1867 and 1872, have 
been prolific: all the others, that of 1864 to and including the present, 1877 have been unprolific, though m all save 1876 the 
oyster spaiviied ; nevertheless, in no one season have the spat exceeded the projxjrtioii of one spat to tuenty, thirty, or more 
older of ovslfrs.—Tlhe fiMt set of Bkiniicrs, wlio came in 1863, picked tlicra np in baskets and stored them on a 
BhclTine i-ockv flat on AVallis Island, blacks culled them, and all the younj? oysters were left to die; besides the schooner 
“Magnet" di‘d not always eoinc to time, and heaps of them died. But those dredgers got aa many as twenty or thirty bags a 
day two men working together. 
600 bags, 
Off same bed, and about same time, several men collected in a similar way 700 or 800 bags for shipment to Sydney; these were 
23—I stored 
