OYSTER CULTIVATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22988, 16 March 1938, Page 12

OYSTER CULTIVATION

Private cultivation of rock oysters on a limited scale is a recommendation of great interest to Auckland contained in the report of the Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee presented in the House of Representatives yesterday. It; may be hoped that the Government will give effect to the committee's recommendation and even widen its scope, because the State monopoly of the trade has definitely failed to give satisfactory results. Demand has been increasing, but supplies at the best are stationary, if they have not fallen off. The season continues to

be all too short. Last year it extended over only two months. Against this situation—so disappointing to an eager public—the Marine Department offers no hope of improvement. At the same time it insists on its monopoly of rock oyster farming, denying private enterprise all opportunity of supplementing supply. It asserts simply that a business proved successful in New South Wales cannot succeed in New Zealand and consistently blocks all attempts to prove the matter. Apparently the committee has reached another opinion as a result of its inquiries. It recommends that foreshores be leased to owners of abutting properties for oyster cultivation in those areas where the beds are not worked by the Government and where no public money has been spent on cultivation. The recommendation is carefully circumscribed —much too carefully—but its adoption would make a first breach in the Government monopoly and perhaps lead on to better things in the department of supply.