OUR OYSTER BEDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10832, 16 August 1898, Page 3

OUR OYSTER BEDS.

■ TO THE EDITOR. ! Sir,—l notice in a late issue of your paper that your Bay of Islands correspondent reports a conversation with Mr. Henry Stephenson, Government inspector, who states he has ] been paying weekly visits to the beds in this district, and he is satisfied that no harm has been done; in fact, he thinks the production will he increased, and the beds would have been improved, if they had been relieved a little more. I must say lie is the only me hero that holds such an opinion. The cyster merchants of Auckland know to their cost that our beds were relieved of everything in the shape of an oyster. In some parts, where th l : rocks were soft, they were literally skinned. The pickers worked straight ahead, taking everything off and picking out the best; the young ones were left to die. In several places where the rocks were worked in this maimer you could have shovelled up sacks of .oysters that had been taken off tho rocks, but were too small to take away. There are some placss that were covered with oysters, large and small, on the southern section, that was worked last year. At the present time these same places are as bare as your hand. Other placos, again, in well-sheltered parts aro beginning to show a new crop, but these places are very few, and. the crops small. Had the large oysters been taken .and tho young ones left, the beds would have suffered n} injury, but, instead of this being done, the rocks wore cleared of everything. The pickers who paid a license fee'did not study the oyster I beds, hut got all they possibly could for their tea shillings. They were not paid for pre- 1

serving the beds by careful picking, so just hoed in as long as thoy could get the inspector to pass,them and customers to buy. In fact, at the latter part of the season the natives were the only ones who could make enough to pay for their tucker. And yet the inspector, thinks the beds would have boon , improved if they had been relieved a little more. The only place that, still had some good oysters when the season closed was 011 the reefs in the Kerikeri River, but the rock is so hard that where a picker gets one off intact he breaks six, and it is just as well these do stick 011 so well, otherwise there would be very few left to spawn. Several pickers, who do know something about oysters, say if the beds were untouched for the next eight years they would be very little, if any, better than they were at the beginning of the season 1897. Of course, they don't mean to say none of the beds should be worked under that period. The general opinion is they should be closed for at least three or four years, and then only worked in conjunction with some othei place just long enough for the pickers to get the large oyster?, and directly they got scarce close the beds for another two years, and thus prevent the destruction of the young oysters. In this way the beds would recover in time. Just to show how the beds, have degenerated in these parts, 1 might say that 15 years ago one picker could gather seven sticks of good, marketable oysters ill one tide, say, six hours. At the start of Inst season tlio best men could not get more than two to three sacks ill the same time. At the end of the season half a sack was good work, and those of poor quality. As to the private oyster beds, 1 quite agree with what the inspector says. To make these a success, it requires hard work, careful watching, and patience in waiting for returns. e.-reciallv the latter. 1 might say, in conclusion, should there be any attempt to open these beds under three years the ucople here will protest by every means in their power, and the public, generally think it is quite time the Government appointed a competent inspector to go over the whole of the oyster beds, and submit a general report to the Government.— I am, etc., Oyster Beds. Russell, August 4, 1893.