THE AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13100, 27 April 1908, Page 2

THE AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS.

(rRBSS ASSOC-ATIOM TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, April 25. •"Hi- department does not intend working tho oyster beds at a lo_s, neither is there amy desire to make a hug© profit," said Mr L. F. Ayson, Inspector erf Fash erics, wion itttorrievred this morning. "Like a. private firm, tho department is besot with numerous ( expenses at tho outset, and we have to provide storage, special launches, employ the best of pickers, and maico provision for tho storing of tho oysters at "W-dheke. By charging 12- (id per sack we aro making a reasonable demand, and that quotation is much, lower than the price .vliirch has ruled for many V£ars. Further then that, the oysters will be of for better quality, nnd dealers in Wellington and other -southern cities are emphatic in their approval of tho new system. It possibly goes against the grain of some Auckland merchants," continued Mr Ayson, ''but the main object of the I department in taking over the control j of tihe oyster beds is to maintain their preservation. Mr Stevenson. Inspector of Fisheries, in the Bay of Islands ' territory, is here to assist mc on the [ cs_o_snon of the new-regulation coming Lu-o force, and he will tell you that | for the last forty years the beds have | been open to indiscriminate picking, 1 and the result has always been, ruinous. Tito sequence has always boon the i G-.n_&, and ait the end, of the season it has been nec-__a.ry to doe© tho beds down. Under the new system, by systematic working we will be able to take off new crops year after year. -Cheris no selfish motive behind the depart-..._-.t__l action, and the present coivrse ol abeo-utoly pToliibiting all and sundry from picking oysters _n_or put of season has been resorted to with a view of conserving the oyster beds and keep;»__r them ia order year after year."