AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 250, 19 October 1907, Page 7

AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS.

PROPOSED STATE CONTROL.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Friday.

The proposals of the Minister for Marine in regard to the State control of the oyster beds iv the Auckland district, which were announced by him several months ago, are embodied in the Sea Fisheries Bill, which was circulated today.

The bUI provides that the Minister may employ pickers in connection with any oyster "fishery in the North Island, and may also, purchase or hire boats and implements in connection with the same industry. The Minister may cause the oysters to be- sold either wholesale or Tetail, and for that purpose may acquire such premises as he considers necessary. The Premier may from time to time by Gazette notice set apart any oyster fishery or sub-division thereof in the North Island for the purposes of the Act. Every unauthorised person who takes oysters from any fishery so set apart shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £10. The same penalty is also provided for any person who opens oysters on any oyster bed The Gover-nor-m-CouHcil may make regulations prohibiting or regulating the possession of oysters during the close season, provided that oysters deposited during the oyster season in any freezing works or freezing chamber may be taken out for consumption during the close season, under a permit granted by a Collector of Customs or inspector of fisheries. A. notice in the Gazette revokes the boundaries of the previously existing southeastern subdivision of the Auck- . land oyster fishery, and divides the" area which was included in that subdivision into the following two new subdivisions: —(1) The south-easterly subdivision, which includes all mainlands, bays, estuaries, and tidal waters situated between the north-eastern point of East Tamaki Head and the north-western point of Orere Point; (2) the Thames subdivision, which includes all bays, estuaries, and tidal waters situated between the north-western point of Orere Point and the south-western point of Hautapu Point. CoromandeL Peninsula. It is declared lawful to take oysters during the prescribed period in the new south-eastern subdivision, but it shall be unlawful to take oysters within the Thames subdivision.