I have, &c.,
T. M. ALMOND,
Portmaster and Chairman Marine Board.
Casualties to Vessels on the Queensland Coast for the year ended 30th June, 1891.
| Name of Vessel. | Tonnage. | Date. | Nature and Locality of Casualty. | Total or Partial Loss. | No. of Lives Lost. | Result of Inquiry. |
| Taldora, s.s. | 232 | 14 July 1890 | Stranding, Eagle Rock, Fitzroy River | Partial | None | Master cautioned. |
| Archer, s.s. | 694 | 20 July 1890 | Stranding, M Reef, Inner Route | Partial | None | Pilot's license suspended 3 months. |
| Changsha, s.s. | 1463 | 22 July 1890 | Stranding, Rattray Island, Inner Route | Partial | None | Master severely censured. |
| Volga, barque | 1620 | 06 August 1890 | Stranding, Beresford Shoal | Total | None | No default. |
| Grace Lynn, schr. | 93 | 12 August 1890 | Stranding, reef off Low Island | Partial | None | Master Guilty; gross negligence. |
| Joseph, barque | 687 | 22 August 1890 | Stranding, Heroine Reef, Endeavour Strait | Total | None | Foreign vessel. No inquiry. |
| Royal Duke, schr. | 105 | 22 August 1890 | Foundering, Cooktown Harbour | Partial | None | No default. |
| Jennie Scott, ketch | 38 | 21 September 1890 | Stranding, Flora Reef | Total | None | No default. |
| Taiyuan, s.s. | 2269 | 14 October 1890 | Collision, Brisbane River | Partial | None | Pilot's license suspended for 3 months. |
| Corea, s.s. | 382 | 09 November 1890 | Fire, Brisbane River | Partial | None | No default. |
| Kate, s.s. | 147 | 11 November 1890 | Collision, Brisbane Bar | Total | None | Insufficient lookout on Burwah. |
| Burwah, s.s. | 568 | 11 November 1890 | Collision, Brisbane Bar | Partial | None | Insufficient lookout on Burwah. |
| Maori King, s.s. | 2476 | 08 December 1890 | Stranding, Brisbane River | Partial | None | No default. |
| Orange Grove, barque | 385 | 15 December 1890 | Stranding, Dungeness | Partial | None | No default. |
| Fiado, s.s. | 985 | 18 December 1890 | Stranding, Brisbane River | Partial | None | No default. |
| Sybil, schr. | 150 | 07 January 1891 | Dismasting off Double Island Point | Partial | None | No default. |
| Perseverance, schr. | 163 | 08 January 1891 | Foundering 18 miles from High Peak Point | Total | None | Master's certificates cancelled. |
| Wawoon, s.s. | 50 | 08 January 1891 | Damage to boiler, Fitzroy River | Partial | None | Engineer's certificate suspended 3 months. |
| Kingswear, s.s. | 201 | 05 February 1891 | Stranding, Cordelia Rock | Partial | None | Master cautioned. |
| Recorder, s.s. | 677 | 06 February 1891 | Stranding, Madge Reef, Normanby Sound | Partial | None | No default. |
| Moltke, barque | 827 | 21 May 1891 | Stranding, Flinders Opening | Partial | None | Foreign vessel. No inquiry. |
| Wastwater, s.s | 2810 | 10 June 1891 | Collision, Brisbane River | No Loss | None | Master Ranelagh cautioned. |
| Ranelagh, s.s. | 836 | 10 June 1891 | Collision, Brisbane River | No Loss | None | Master Ranelagh cautioned. |
| Anahuac, ship | 1220 | 15 June 1891 | Stranding, reef near Bramble Cay | Total | None | Foreign vessel. No inquiry. |
Harbour Master's Office,
Maryborough, 31st July, 1891.
Sir,—In accordance with your instructions, I have the honour to submit the following Report on the Oyster Fisheries of this port, the extreme limits of which extend from Tin Can Inlet on the south, taking in Wide Bay, Great Sandy Strait, and Hervey Bay, to the Burrum River on the north, covering a distance of nearly 100 miles, exclusive of many large creeks, all containing oyster ground between those limits.
I commenced marking off these oyster banks in July, 1886. We then had licenses issued for 72 banks, 18 boats, and 42 men, at a revenue of £398 for the year ending 30th June, 1886. We now have for the year ending 30th June, 1891, licenses issued for 175 oyster banks, 30 boats, and 53 men, at a revenue of £942 2s. 6d. [Vide Schedule appended.]
I hope to have the survey of the different sections in Hervey Bay completed by the end of the present year, when tracings of plans of same will be forwarded to you. This would have been finished before, but that I can only spare a few days in each month from my other duties for the work. I shall then require to run over the whole district again, as a considerable quantity of new ground has been taken up in the different sections since first survey, owing to the heavy falls of spat which have since taken place, portions of which ground previously never carried an oyster. During the past year large quantities of spat have fallen on the oyster banks in Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait, some of the banks being literally covered, thus preventing the shipment of good marketable oysters, which, if removed in their present state, would cause the destruction of all the young oysters attached to them.
Great attention has been paid by the different licensees to the cultivation of their banks by removing the poor oysters from the high ridges, after being carefully culled and separated into clumps containing from three to four oysters, are deposited on the grass flat and lower ground lying near. Upwards of 4,000 bags have been treated in this manner with excellent results.