OYSTER FISHERMEN’S DEMANDS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 135, 4 March 1941, Page 9

OYSTER FISHERMEN’S DEMANDS

Anticipatory Action DECISION OF DUNEDIN RETAILERS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, March 3. Anticipating the granting of the demands of the men working the oyster fleet, a meeting this morning of all Dunedin fish retailers unanimously agreed not to accept oysters under the new system. The fleet is asking that a sack shall consist of 50 dozen oysters. The Dunedin retailers are adamant; they will not accept a sack other than one weighing 1901 b. Dissatisfied with the service in the past and fearing an influx of small oysters from grounds handy to Bluff, they stipulated also that the oysters must be clean, free from grit, and of fair average quality. Complaints of small oysters have led the Marine Department to enforce a regulation raising the size permitted to be taken from 2in. to 2 l-Bin. It is pointed out, however, that with a 60-dozen sack, though large oysters might fill it, with small oysters big enough to be permissible, it would not be half full. In retailing small oysters from standard-size sacks the man behind the counter has been able to appbase the public by selling more than a dozen. He could not do this if he had to buy by quantity instead of by weight. A retailer pointed out that if the men’s demands were acceded to a' system of grading for size would follow. This would increase the additionally costly handling that the 60-dozen sack would already mean, and the oysters would be stale by the time they reached the public. The full text of the men’s demands, it is understood here, means roughly, a 20 per cent, rise, involving at the very least 10 per cent, additional cost to the ’consumer. Wholesalers at Bluff are as strongly against the proposals as retailers in Dunedin.