OYSTER HISTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 July 1931, Page 3

OYSTER HISTORY

NOT ALL “STEWART ISLANDS”

FIRST CATCH IN STRAIT

If the average New Zealander were asked where Stewart Island oysters come from lie would probably icplj, “From Stewart Maud.” And he would be wrong. Not that there are no Stewart Island oysters (says the “Dominion”). The real Stewart Island _ oysters, perhaps the most succulent bivalv c in the world, the “Blue Point” (American) oysters notwithstanding, were originally found at Port Adventure, on the east coast of Stewart Island, and wero immensely appreciated by the early settlers and sailors who used to lisli the waters of the south. They weio quite a peculiar species of shellfish, just as large as the ordinary ‘ Stcwait (as known to all), but of different habit and shape. These oysters, unlike those which the wdiole of New Zealand gets from Foveaux Strait, propagate on the rocks in and round Port Adventure, and at a certain age they hive off into the deeper waters in the vicinity. There are few people who know more of the oyster business in this country I linn docs Mr Archibald Walker, of Eastbourne, who was born in Invercargill, and for many years was engineer of the tug Awarna, and later of the Theresa Ward (which he helped to design), sailing out from the Bluff, mostly to Half-Moon Bay, Paterson Inlet, and other inlets, including Tegasus. Mi- -Walker states that the Port Adventure oysters, for oyer. thirty years protected from spoilation, are certainly a distinct species, for not only do they breed on the rocks, after the fashion of rock oysters, but they are different in shape, and have ft deeper and more crinkly shell than the oysters sold here under the name of “Stewarts.” To the best of his belief the Port Adventure oysters have been protected for over thirty years, and he believes there must be thousands of tons of them there at the present time. Ho testifies to their superiority in flavour over the oysters from Foveaux Strait.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY “Did you ever hear how the oysters were discovered in the Strait?” said Mr Walker to a “Dominion” representative. “It was either in 1874 or 1875. There was at that time a real hard case of a skipper sailing out of the Bluff in a ketch—Captain Scolley, he was called, but whether he had a ticket or not I could not say. He was in the habit of running down to Port Adventure, and coming back with a load of oysters for Invercargill. On one of his runs home he encountered a heavy gale, blowing inshore, and tlieio was an imminent chance of his boat being driven ashore. He had no anchor, so in order to make a drag on the leeway the boat was making lie thought of his oyster dredge, with its three-foot bar and chain bag, and over it went. It certainly did act as a drag, and held the boat until the worst of the gale subsided. When they went to pick up the dredge and get under weigh, to the great surprise of the captain it was chock full of oysters.

"That was the first occasion on which anyone knew there were oysters on the bed of the Strait. The position was about five miles off the entrance to the Bluff, but as Scolley bad taken no exact bearings in the thick weather prevailing at the time of his experience lie was some weeks locating the spot; but eventually he did so, and at length came upon the great oyster bed, twenty-five miles in length, which lias been feeding New Zealand ever since without any apparent diminution in supply.” “Jn the old days the dredge bar was never more than feet in length,” said Mr Walker. “This acts, as a sort of cutting scoop which, as it is dragged along the sandy bottom of the Strait, scoops the oysters into the chain hag, suspended between the bar and the dredge line. Nowadays tlie dredge bail's as long as seven feet, as the oyster motor-boats are larger, and have more power with which to handle the dredges.”

THE SIX DOZEN MAN

“I well remember the time I saw the record oyster-eater,” continued Mr Walker. “He was a Pennsylvanian Yankee, twenty-three stone in weight, named Aston, who had been sent out to New Zealand to consolidate tlie tobacco-selling agencies in the Dominion. I was an officer on the Eotomahana at the time, and this man travelled with us from the Bluff to Melbourne. One day some of them were sitting on the after hatch in the sun yarning, when the chief steward asked the big American what he thought of the New Zealand oysters. “ ‘I guess they are some oysters!’ ” said the Pennsylvanian, ‘but they scarcely come up to our Blue Points, which 1 think are the best oysters in the World.’ “ ‘ITo w many Blue Points could you eat at a sitting if you were hungry?” asked the steward with something dcfifiite at the hack of his mind. “ ‘When hungry, I guess I 'OuM cat ten dozen, done in egg and bread crumbs.’ “ ‘ls that so?’ said the chief steward. ‘Well, I’ll bet you a sovereign that you cannot eat ten dozen Stewarts at a sitting.’ ‘That's all very well,” said the American. ‘Now we are three hundred ,miles away from New Zealand. Where are tlie oysters?’ “ ‘Oh, Walker’s got a 'sack in the tank.’ “ ‘What, good oysters?’ and the eves of tlie gourmand glistened again. ■' ‘Very good,’ said the steward. ‘He takes a sack-full over to Melbourne every trip.’ “The bet was made and it was then decided,” said Mr Walker, ‘that there would be a test tlie next morning at II o’clock. The oysters were got out of the tank, opened up, and dried in hatter, and, after a preliminary bottle of stout, the 23-stoner started on his oyster-eating Marathon. “The first three or four dozen disappeared like magic, then the giant began to settle down steadily to his task. At live dozen he took a deep breath, patted his great stomach and looked sort of satisfied. After the sixth dozen, the man confessed himself beaten —lie could eat no more. So i( was a, ease of culling the American’s bluff once more with a. vengeance, as Blue Point, oysters arc no larger or less satisfying than those which come from Foveanx Strait.”