OYSTER CULTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 233, 1 October 1936, Page 9

OYSTER CULTURE.

KAWAU EXPERIENCE.

MATURED AFTER 3* YEARS.

GROWN ON WHARF PILES,

Flanked by two bottles of stout to Sive the proper atmosphere, a number of. unopened oysters, still attached to the bark of the pile on which they grew, are laid out on a table at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, as a substantial argument in favour of the cultivation of oysters in the Hauraki Gulf. The oysters are fully matured, and were

taken from a pile that had been in the water for only three and a half years. They were sent to the secretary of the chamber, Dr. E. I'. Neale, by Mr. L. G. Reeves, Mansion House, Kawau, with the aceompaning letter: —"Some three and a half years ago I had a few pinus insignus piles put in the Mansion House wharf. Since then a prolific crop of oysters has grown 011 them. As your council is interested in the important matter of oyster culture I am sending by post to-day some of those oysters. You will see the remarkable growth, and this fact should indicate that the culture of oysters on piles is obtained in much less time than seven years, as is generally believed. YOll will observe that the oysters are fully matured and ready for picking." " The oysters were sent on strips of bark taken from the wharf piles and are clustered thickly. They are of good size and quality. » Departmental Reports. The reference to the period of seven years is taken from the annual report of the Marine Department, which, in the course of an extended report 011 the conditions of rock oyster culture in New Zealand waters, states: "The crop, under New Zealand conditions, may have to remain for a period of six or seven years before it can be harvested." Similarly, in a letter to the Chamber of Commerce, in answer to a suggestion that the oyster industry could best be handled by leasing parts of the foreshore to private individuals or companies, the Minister of Marine, the Hon. Peter Fraser, wrote on September .2: "I am advised that in the Hauraki Gulf, on account of the vagaries of the tempera- j ture, and, possibly, lack of shelter, j spatting is irregular and uncertain, and the growth of the oyster is slower, being frequently retarded by adverse weather conditions, so that it takes from two to three years longer in Auckland for the oysters to reach marketable 6ize than it does in New South Wales. That would make the cost of the AuckIrnd cultivated oyster much higher than the already expensive New South Wales oyster."