AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 12

AUCKLAND OYSTER BEDS

WORK OF PROPAGATION. GREATER ACTIVITY URGED. "PLUNKET SOCIETY" WANTED. THE GOVERNMENT REPROACHED. [BY TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL. REPORTER.J WELLINGTON. Friday " We spent six hours od lemons last night and we should spend 12 hours on oysters, for what could be better than IB hours of oysters and lemons." This little quip which Mr. V. H. Pottei (Roskiil) used in the House of Representatives to-night caught the attention of members and put them in a mood to listen while he reproached the Marine Department for not safeguarding and extending the oyster beds in Auckland waters. If the Government spend £1250 a year of the profits from the rock oysters on propagation it would get enough oysters to meet all the demand and make a profit of £IO.OOO a year in a few years," Mr. Potter declared. He charged the natives with not looking after their oyster beds and said that now the native beds were becoming depleted the Maoris were seeking the right to take oysters from the beds which Europeans had -care fully cultivated. " Not even under the Treaty of Waitangi svould 1 allow Maoris to take oysters during the close season," Mr. Potter added. " The Maori of to day must look to the Maori of to-morrow. He must be protected against himself. If the Government is not going to do the job properly then let it.be open for every body to take the oysters We are spend ing only a paltry £6OO a year on bringing up the oysters of the future."' "Mr. -J. A. Lee (Auckland East.: You want a Plunket Society for oysters. Leasing of Beds Urged. " That is just what I do want," re joined Mr. Potter, who went on to advo cate the leasing of the beds as the solu tion of the poaching and other difficulties Since the Government had taken over the beds the oysters had gone back " That is true in all things," inter jected Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition Maybe, but if the oyster had all the troubles of the Government it would have gone back much more quickly than it has,' said Mr. Potter. According to Mr. Tau Henare (Northern Maori), the Europeans do not know how to look after the oysters. He had been in Auckland on Sundays and had seen picnic parties armed with bottles and lemons going out and damaging the beds. For _ this state of affairs Mr Potter must take his share of the blame Mr. Henare denied that the Maoris were not tending their oyster beds carefully but he said " a European marries a Maori woman and he uses her as a ticket on which he takes all his pakeha triends down to the beds." Reply by the Minister. The Minister of Marine, Hon. G. J. Anderson, said the Government desired to preserve the oysters for the people of Auckland, and not for a limited few The critics of the Government's activities with regard to the oysters were not al ways 11? possession of the facts. It was not asking too much when the ovsters were sold at 24s for 90 dozen Mr. Anderson thought that the work now being carried on by Mr. Hefford, the fisheries expert, would be very productive of knowledge concerning the oysters. He added that the Government was- spend ing all it considered necessary on the beds, the money being used chiefly in clearing 'he old beds.