The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-28 00:00:00

THE SCARCITY OF OYSTERS.

THE LICENSING QUESTION.

The following communication, sent to The Times for pub- I
ill be of interest to mary of our readers : I Cardinal Manning attended a meeting of the Liver-
lloation, w
Sir,—Onoe more the oyster season has opened, and pool Catholic Temperance league on Monday night, at
the League hall, Liverpool, Dr. O'Reilly, the Roman
still at increased prices. Native oysters :It 3s. 6d. a Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, in the chair. The meet-
dozen and the commoner sort at 2s. may well be ing was principally for the promotion of the move-
reckoned prohibitive prices, and to nine-tenths of the meat for the closing of publichouses on Sunday. His
population oysters are now a forbidden luxury. I con- Eminence said that he put only one subject before the
fees this does not surprise me, nor would it surprise me Permissive Bill in importance—that was the subject of
Uwe were required to pay 6L a piece for our natives if , Christian education. Since the introduction of the
the Government still persists in leaving the oysters to Forbes Mackenzie Act into Scotland the consumption
take care of themselves. In twelve years oysters have of drink had diminished in proportion to the popula-
increased in price 700 per cent.. During that period the Ition. It was a great thing in a Christian country to
English stocks have been, more or less, kept up by have one day, and that the Lord's day, when the
supplies from Ireland and elsewhere: These supplies scandals arising in the streets from drink were pre.
are now utterly exhausted. The Irish,like ourselves, have vented. Ireland had been unable to get a similar law,
killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, and in. the I because England was herself behindhand. Both
last Fishery Report of the Irish Inspectors they state political parties had united in that instance to do a
that things have gone on from bad to worse, and that i great mischief. He understood that some years ago
most of the fisheries there are now utterlyeruined, and 900 out of 1,400 publicans in Liverpool were ready to
unless something is done and that very speedily, that ruin close on Sunday if others did the same. They had.
will be confirmed and will become irremediable ; for gone back within the last ten years on this ques-
when an oyster bed becomes so far exhausted that it tion. He had been asked many times in London to
no longer pays to dredge it, mud and filth settle and put his name to petitions for the opening of museums
accumulate upon it, and the ground soon becomes and places of amusement on Sundays. For people who
wholly unfit for oysters. In explaining how this has work all the week through, leading a laborious life, it
arisen ,al.
must make the explanation in some so
personal. In 1868, Lord Mayo appointed a Com-rt was a motive of benevolence that prompted others to
of en places of amusement on Sunday. Ms feeling was
mission,consisting of Mr. Blake, the then M.P. for a ways in favour of opening places of amusement and
Waterford and present Inspector of Fisheries for recreation on that day. In Ireland he would have very
Ireland; Mr. Brady, also Inspector of Fisheries for little hesitation in doing so, but he saw great difficulty
Ireland; Mr. Kent, the well-known ostreaculturist in doing it in England. In England they had one thing
and myself, to visit the coasts of France, the Channel into which he would not enter. lest he might have to say
Islands, England, and Ireland, and to make a report
something not altcgether in accordance with public
upon the state of the fisheries, with any suggestions
opinion, but it was of great importance to order, morals,
which we might arrive at for the improvement of the
and Christianity, and that was the observance of the
fisheries and as to the cause of their decay. Our in. Sunday. After all that could be said, the way in which
speotion occupied about two years, during which the Sunday was kept in England was a public acknow-
tone we visited some 70 fisheries, and the Report ledgment of God, and a commemoration of the Resur-
which we presented to Parliament was one of the most rection. Toiling as men did all the week for money it
comprehensive and exhaustive ever issued upon any showed that Mammon and Capital could not grind the
fishery subject, since it not only forms a perfect and people down for another day, and he, therefore, dil not
illustrated handbook to ostreaculturists, but inasmuch wish to see the orderly observance of the Sunday relaxed
as certain suggestions had been made previously as to or broken through in the slightest degree. He believed
the cause of the scarcity then beginning to be seriously this matter was of the greatest importance to them all.
felt, and these suggestions had some relation to the What might be done in the midst of a people among
breeding and the natural history of the oyster, we gave whom every man, woman, and child had been at
complete tables of temperatures all round the above- church on Sunday morning could not be applied to
mentioned coasts, and maps of the various soils suit- millions of people who never set their feet in a place
able to oysters, with analyses of the same, and after
of worship. He therefore was in favour of Sunday
collecting a vast mass of evidence at all these places it closing in England, because it tended to keep up that
became irresistibly clear to us that but one conclusion public acknowledgment of Christianity which the
as to the cause of the scarcity was possible, and that Catholic Church had taught; he therefore desired to
was that it was caused partly by over dredging, and so see all places closed on Sunday that we might be pro.
reducing the stocks, and partly by the wholesale and tected from every breach that the flood of public licence
reckless removal at all times and seasons of the was beginning to let loose over the country. He
small spat and brood of the oysters. That bad thought the Catholics were bound to stand firm where.
spatting years may also have occurred is quite pos- ever there was a lingering disposition to have the law
Bible, as these are natural occurrences that always have
of God publicly observed.
and will happen from time to time. But the absolute
causes, and they will exist even to a more exaggerated
degree, are undoubtedly such as I have stated. I will
not here enter upon the suggestions we made to remedy
this state of things ' • that Report is still in being and is
at any time within the reach of the Government, and
the suggestions which we then made I am more than
ever convinced by the experience we have had since
1870 are those which I would still recommend the
Government to carry out. The public oyster beds,
wherever there are any yet in existence, must not be
left to the tender mercies of the oyster dredger, or a
very short period now will extinguish them altogether.
The Firs, Twickenham. FRANCIS FRANCIS.