THE OYSTER PROSECUTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1888, Page 2

THE OYSTER PROSECUTIONS.

(To tho Editor.)

Sir,—Another oyster prosecution has ended in tho Government being beaten, but alas I also in creating several men with a grievance, who are now quite ready, at the first opportunity, to leave a country where such ill-advised laws are enacted and enforced with a view to bring them to book. When will tho Government learn this most necessary fact—that our population is leaving us quite fast enough, without being stimulated by frivolous and impolitic prosecutions ? If the Government wished to protect the Coromandel beds for a time, they surely could have done so without including the hundreds of miles of oyster-bearing coast, resulting in the throwing out of employment .several score of men and lads, ruining at the same time our export trade in the same. I don't know who were the movers in obtaining the Order-in-Council, but this I do know—that if a proper survey of the coasts and islands had been made "it would have been very much restricted in its operations. I feel sure I am within the mark when I say that one hundred thousand bushels of oysters could be obtained from Ilangitoto, and

nlenty left for breeding. The same remark applies to a very considerable portion of other islands, bays and headlands inside the prohibited boundaries ; in tact, they are growing so thick that they cannot become, without thinning, a marketable oyster. If tbe Governmet desire that no one shall be left in the colony to eat oysters, or anything else, let them have a few more Orders-in-Council proclaimed having the same effect as the one under review. .-"-hey will not have to wait long for their wish to bo gratified. In conclusion, I disclaim any interest in the trade. It would not matter to me il there was not an oyster in the country, but having a thorough knowledge of the subject, and seeing 'the effect of a pernicious law upon our population and trade, I cannot help trying to throw some light on it, with a view to restrict tho operation of the Order-iii-Council to where it is required only We have several members, but the subject seems never to have occurred to them. _ It is time they woke up to the fact. I think ifc would bo woll for one of them to move tor a return of the value of the oysters exported for the last five years, and it will then be seen how much we have lost during the last three, and what wo arc likely to lose while this stupid law remains in force. —I am, etc., " Jas. 11. Gascoigne.