OYSTERS EATEN FROM STONE AGE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 255, 25 July 1935, Page 11

OYSTERS EATEN FROM STONE AGE

Industry in New Zealand

PRODUCTION PROSPECTS FOR NEXT YEAR

“Oysters have been eaten since the Stone Age, as is shown by the presence of great quantities of oyster shells accompanied by remains of primitive human implements in the prehistoric kitchen middens that have been excavated in Northern Europe,” said Mr. A. E. Hefford, chief inspector of fisheries, Department of Marine, in an address on “Oysters, Toheroas aud Plpls” at a general meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society last night. “Oysters have been written about, in rather glowing terms, since before the beginning of the Christian era,” Mr. Hefford continued. "They were the object of artificial cultivation at least 2000 years ago and, in the last 50 years especially, have been the object of very extensive and intensive scientific research. “The toheroa in comparison is a relatively unknown quantity—and quality—wasting his sweetness on the desert air of a few lonely beaches in remote parts of New Zealand. New Zealand Oyster Supplies. “The oysters that are marketed in Wellington ‘on the shell’ come from tile well-known beds in Foveaux Strait, where they are dredged by small steamers operating from the port of Bluff. The northern rock- oyster is found only in the extreme north of the North Island, and is most abundant on the rocky shores of Hauraki Gulf and on all shores of similar character to the north along the east coast as far as Mangonut Harbour.

“The New Zealand natural supplies of mud oysters (dredge oysters) have never been played out because their exploitation has been limited. Our small population, the difficulties or transport and their low price have been the factors in keeping the trade m the hands of comparatively few at the: one important port of production, the Bluff. “Personally,” said Mr. Hefford, I doubt verv much whether the beds in the Foveaux Strait would last very long in their present productiveness if an attempt were made to double the pre sent output.

“The rock oysters of the North were in the earlier’days free natural resources, open .to everyone to use or abuse as he pleased. Then followed the era of a degree of Government control, in that only holders of licenses wore allowed to pick. This did not serve to conserve supplies, for every licensed picker, naturally, tried to get as many marketable oysters as he could in the shortest possible time. They had to work while the beds were exposed by the tide, and the picker was not concerned about the condition of the beds in the next year and in the years to come. Beds Rapidly Depleted. “It is therefore no wonder that the rock ovster beds were rapidly depleted and that the Government was forced to prohibit further picking in certain areas for a period of years. Tile principal areas were closed, sometimes entirely and sometimes in rotation, between the years 1886 and 1906, and in 1908 the Government took over the control and picking of tlie beds.

“Since that year all oyster picking —all legal oyster picking, that i«—has been done by the Marine Department. The oyster areas in the Hauraki Gulf, in the" Bay of Islands, and, since 1929. in the Kaipara Harbour, have been patrolled by permanent inspectors of fisheries. The picking of oysters is done under their direction, the work of the pickers being supervised by an experienced overseer. “Besides the picking and protection of the beds the department lias carried on cultivation work since 1911. when the transplanting of oysters to depleted beds in Hauraki Gulf was commenced, and extended to the Coromandel coast and other areas during the following vears. In 1921 the Department amplified its cultivation programme by adopting a method which had been ' successfully developed in New South Wales, where the early exhaustion of the mud oyster supplies and the limited natural reefs of small oysters had stimulated the development of oyster farms. “The method adopted was to build low walls of small boulders in the vicinity of a natural oyster bed. Young oysters fix on these walls and more especially on the under side of the top layer of stones. After the oysters have completed sufficient growth the capstones are turned so as to bring the oysters to the upper surface and there they are left, till they attain marketable size, which in New South Wales is usually In their fourth year. This particular method was afterwards replaced in New South Wales by im-

proved methods devised by the Australian oyster farmers.” Five Years Foil Marketable Size. Mr. Hefford showed lantern slides of artificial rock walls made in the Bay of Islands. "We have now had over 10 years’ experience with these rock walls and have had time to appreciate their advantages and drawbacks,” Mr. Hefford said. “They have certainly provided additional and generally more attractive settling surfaces for spat than do the natural reefs, because there is a much greater likelihood of getting what our oyster man call ‘a good fixing’ on the under side of the capstones than om the natural reefs. “In New Zealand it appears to take at least five years for a rock oyster to growl to a size suitable for marketing. The harvest of a cultivation project, whether in the form of commercial returns or of experimental data, therefore, has to be awaited with some patience.” Mr. Hefford .said that the average annual production of Bluff oysters since 1913 was 31.114 sacks. The best year was 1934 with 52,254 sacks landed by seven vessels. That, incidentally, he said was one of tiie least profitable years on record to the producers, owing to a price-cutting war. Tlie lowest year's production was in 1927 when five boats landed a total of 21,009 sacks.

From 1908 to 1934 the average annual production of rock oysters had been 6890 sacks. The maximum year was 1908. the first year of the departmental picking, with 11.005 sacks. From 1911 the total did not fall below 0000 till 1928. and it had remained below that total since 1930. with m minimum production of 4414 in 1932. It would be smaller still this year, but the prospects were brighter for 1936 and 1937.