I beg to move:—
"That considering that Ireland is favourably situated for the purposes of ostreiculture, that many beds of oysters have been naturally formed around our coasts and that some have failed through want of proper management, the Seanad requests the Government to institute an enquiry into the present state of those extant, and to report on the best methods of protecting, improving, and extending them, such as have been adopted in France and elsewhere with advantage.
The object of this motion is in the first place to advance the material prosperity of the country, and in the second place to afford more employment to the people of the Saorstát. The former prosperity of the molluscs, which have formed around our coasts, or were placed there by kindly Nature. may be inferred from many things, and also attested by certain witnesses. In the first place, there have been heaps of oyster shells found around the coast, and these have been used very often for building castles, the cement formed from the shells of these oysters making better cement than that made from lime. But, passing from that, we have a witness who visited Ireland in the year 1776 and remained until 1779. Now, this was Arthur Young, a distinguished economist, and one of the earliest, as well as one of the first and keenest, observers of the social conditions of the people, and all that pertained to their material prosperity. It is worthy of note that he says: "When I came to Dublin I was quite unprepared for such a city, so well arranged, with such fine streets." Moreover, there is one thing, I think, that will be re-echoed throughout the country, and that is this phrase: "The Parliament House is grand." He thought it might be a little higher, but, of course, that was a question of architecture. "Its rooms are spacious, elegant and convenient, far above that heap of confusion at Westminster. And that is not the only building in Dublin which excels another at Westminster, for in the early 'fifties I visited Westminster Hall, then on my way to France, and was shown into the Courts of Law, through doors in the outer walls of that building; and the Courts of Law were a kind of shed, or lean-to, while the magnificent Four Courts in Dublin housed the expression of the people's will as it was, or as it was to become." He mentioned several places where oysters were abundant, in Sligo, under the shadow of Knocknareigh, and other places on the West Coast—Westport, for instance—and in one place he found that you could get a cart-load of oysters for 1/-; it may have been a small cart, but it was evidently very far different from the rates at present existing.
It is clear, from comparison with the present state of things, that these molluscs were more plentiful then. Now, looking round the coast, it is a remarkable thing that they rather prefer the Free State coast to any other part of the island. You find there is a bed in Lough Swilly, but there is none in Lough Foyle. Passing westwards, you go to Sligo, where there are oysters still; and more southward, in the Killeries, there are oysters, but these have to be dredged. Then, passing on towards Galway Bay, there is, or has been, a very fine and plentiful bed at Cashel Bay. We know that in Galway Bay there were also oyster beds.
Passing down towards Limerick there seems to be a curious and unaccountable scarcity, whereas you would think that the Shannon mouth and its banks would have given them a favourable place. I have not heard of any other beds until you come to Ballylongford and Spa, outside of Tralee harbour; there is ample space and opportunity for fosterage around Ballinskelligs Bay, but there are no oysters. Then in Kenmare Bay you had an attempt made to develop an oyster culture. This was made by a distinguished gentleman there, Richard Mahony, of Dromore Castle, who introduced it as well as improving the inland fisheries. I had the pleasure of having a keg of very delicate oysters sent to me by him in former years. Going eastwards along the coast you will scarcely find anything except what you may discover at Fota. These were due to Lord Barrymore. Then there were some small beds on the east coast at Wexford, and at Ballylongford, from which, curiously enough, the owners of a little fishery or oyster property there used to bring up the oysters and fatten them on the richer waters of Dublin Bay. Northwards, of course, we get the Carlingford oysters. These are beautiful oysters, but owing to the want of proper management these have failed or have partially failed, and they are being replaced, as I am being informed, by a coarser kind of oyster which is now becoming more refined in the northern waters of Ireland. As you can see from this, Ireland is a favourable place for the development of oysters, very favourable, and that shows we have the Gulf Stream impinging on the southern and western coast and developing exotic flowers and plants. You have exotic plants, such as "London Pride" growing wild upon the mountains in Kerry. That shows that the temperature is high and favourable, but not too high. There is no danger of what happened in France a little while ago when the heat of the summer diminished the development of the oysters, and there is but little danger of parasites in the oysters, such as a year ago or so injured the French oysters. It is therefore, certain that with proper fostering this island might produce a rich crop of oysters. I have examined the French oyster beds at Alcason, at the mouth of the river Garonne passing from Bordeaux, and there one sees what science and fosterage can do. These oyster parks are laid out almost like beds in a garden, and there are persons employed to look after the welfare of the oysters and to remove any that might appear to be ailing in health, and to see that proper and judicious selection is made of those to be taken away. It may be of interest for Senators to know that the caretakers were in many cases women dressed up in male attire to a certain extent, wading in little boats between the beds doing this work with success. I do not think that the ordinary country woman of the West of Ireland would shirk such a duty, because I have seen them knee deep in the water raking in the sea weed, and also carrying it in creels up the side of the mountains.
What they are asked to do in a place like Alcason would be pleasure and ease compared with what they do at present, and have done for years, in the West. Therefore, I suggest that notice should be taken of the methods which have been employed in France for developing, in less favourable circumstances, that esculent which came to us, apparently, by Nature and which, I think, has been largely neglected by man.
