ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR.                 1097

Any person who may desire to plant or cultivate oysters on
said area may apply to the Conservation Department for a
lease, not exceeding fifty acres to any one person.

At the time of filing the application the applicant shall
stake out the ground applied for and designate same by four
suitable stakes or markers, one of which shall be placed on
each corner of said lot, and shall plainly mark his name on
the two outer stakes. Said stakes when properly placed, shall
designate the lot applied for and give the applicant prior
rights to said ground until the surveyor of the Department
shall have an opportunity to survey same in order to get the
proper boundaries. After said ground has been so surveyed,
the stakes or buoys must be kept up as is required in the case
of other leased ground in the State.

All applications shall be given priority in the order in which
they are received, except that for a period of thirty days after
this Act becomes effective, priority rights shall extend to any
bona fide owner or occupant of a planted area in any of these
waters who is able to prove satisfactorily to the Conservation
Commissioner that such ownership, occupancy or right of
claim was vested in him prior to March 15, 1931.

After said thirty days have elapsed, any resident of Wor-
cester County shall have prior right over all other applicants
for a period of thirty days.

154C. After the application has been advertised for four
successive weeks in one of the newspapers of Worcester County
and if no protests are sustained by the Conservation Com-
missioner and after the payment of $5. 00 for application fee,
$5. 00 for advertising fee, $5. 00 for survey fee, and $2. 50 for
the recording of the lease, and $1. 00 per acre for the first
year's rent, all in advance, it shall be the duty of the Con-
servation Commissioner to cause same to be surveyed and a
lease issued.

The term of said lease shall be twenty years and the price
not less than $1. 00 per year per acre.

At the expiration of said lease, the lessee shall be considered
as having prior right and shall be given first consideration in
making application for a new lease.

154D. A lessee is privileged to cultivate or remove oysters
so planted on his leased area in any manner that he deems
proper provided he has complied with the law providing for