OYSTER CULTURE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1194, 18 January 1895, Page 8

OYSTER CULTURE.

_-♦ ——~ One of llio prettiest and by far tho cheapest excursions by rail in this Colony is that provided by tho Manawatu Railway Company every Saturday, Sunday and general holiday of a ride to Plimraorton and back; faro, 2s first, and Is Gd socondolaes. The journey is 30 miles, and tho scenery on both sides of the lino is very picturesque and attractive. Two miles this sido of Plimmcrton is tho Paromata Station,whore residents at Pahautanui loavo tho train and travel by a road which skirts the inner harbour of Pahautanui and leads in an easterly direction through settlements of various kinds. The harbour occupies the whole of the centre of a basin formed by the chain of undulating hills, and is about two miles in extent. It is on the foreshores of this picturesque harbour that the Wellington Oyster Company have established their head-quarters, and are now busily engaged -in providing the bods from which it is hoped a large supply of oysters will soon be takon. The foreshore is eminently suited to the purpose, as it is very firm and of a long gentle slopo into the centre of the harbour, tho interior of which is at no point of a greater depth than Bft. Being of a firm consistency and covered with shells of cockle?, mussols.&c, it offers exceptional advantages as an oyster cultivating ground. Added to this tho surrounding hills form a very substantial breakwind, and the water of the harbour is seldom disturbed. ..The Company has done well in (Securing so favourable a site for their operations, but it has done better in securing the sorvioes of a capable expert in oyster culture in the person of Mr John li. Harvey, whose experience in tho Essex oyster beds will prove of valuo to New Zealand. Mr Harvey is a young man whose parents and ' ancestors of many generations have devoted themselves to rearing the " native " oyster on tho Essex coast, the only place in tho world where these delicacies are reared. Mr Harvoy has been in tho Colony only a short time, and has seen the Soxith Island oyster beds, and is surprised that there hasbeennoattontion paid to their cultivation whatever. Nature has, so far unassisted, dono everything as far as the Stewart Island oysters are concerned. Mr Harvey points out that an oyster, to bo put on the market properly, needs as much attention at the proper seasons of the year as any delicate flowering plant does. Ho looks upon the site tho Wellington Company has secured at Pahautanui as exceedingly favourable in all ways. Tho climate is excellent; the temperature of tho water is good (it has ranged from 67 to 72 recently); the foreBhore is firm and shelly, and it is near to market. With these advantages he looks forward to the Company soon being in a position to supply, not only this, but tho neighbouring colonies with oysters of a size and quality that have not been attained to previously in the colonies. For this purpose he is now busy making a large number of oyster beds. This is attended with no difficulty at Pahautanui, as the materials are all at hand. Tho beds are about half an acre each, and run out to low water. They are boixnded by small cairns of stones, and are filled in with clean cockle Or mussel shells. The lake or harbour already abounds in oysters of an inferior size'and quality, to which the Company has recently added several thousands of Sydney, Auckland, Nelson and Stewart Island oysters. In the favourable conditions of the Pahautanui harbour it is expected that a large proportion of these will spawn this season. Indeed, already some of this season's " spat" has been found, and it "is expected that during this and next month tho water of the harbour will teem with spat. Each oyster is estimated to yield from half to one million spat, so that it can bo imagined how soon the water will become alive with it. This spat floats about the water for several days, and no doubt fish thi ive well while it is in the water. But in a few days the spat becomes weighty and gradually drops. "If it falls on sand or mud it dies instantly. But should it fall on any hard substance to which it can

adhere it lodges there permanently. Hence in the case of the shell beds that Mr Harvey is now having made, all the spat that lodges there will be retained. At tho end of the first season these will have assumed so large a size, and will probably havo grown so closely together on the shells, that they will crowd each other into all sorts of shapes. It is then that the expert in oyster culturs comes to the rescue. He is armed with the necessary tools, by whioh he knocks the cockle shell away from the oysters and re-deposits the latter on clean bods where they have plenty of room to expand and grow into largesized, well-formed, and well - matured oysters, eight oysters being allowed a spaco of one square foot. This process is of course repeated to each bod, and while giving plenty of employment, provides a rich delicacy that can never be obtainod without the closest attention on the part o those who have charge of the bods. Thero is now quite an active little canvas settlement on tho foroshoro of tho harbour, where Mr Harvey and his assistants are encampod. Operations are conductod both ashore and afloat, as under water and ■ beyond whore tho paddocks are made down to low water mark, tho boats are assisting by harrowing the bed of the harbour, and depositing qxiantities of shells, technically termed " cultch," for the spat to settle on. These portions will in due course be

hand drodgod, cleaned and redoposited on fresh bods in tho same way. Mr Harvey finds an almost total absence of natural enomios to tho oystor in Now Zealand. In Essox tho “ five fingors,” or star fish, discounts tho yield of natives very materially, while the French oyster beds are subjected to numerous drawbacks. Sir James Hector has already visited tho works at Pahautanui, and has conversed with Mr Harvey as to tho proposals of tho Company. Ho is quite satisfied that they havo dono tho right thing in securing tho ground they havo. His report will bo made to the Government. An interesting’ object in connection with oyster-growing is to bo seen in a shop in Cuba stroot in tho shape of a group of last season’s oystor spat clinging on to an empty oystor shell. The small shells are so closoly attached that wore they allowed to remain in that condition it would ho impossible for thorn to attain any size, hut it is when removed from their original halting place and deposited on clean bods that thoy develop into luscious and nutritious brain food. Mr E. H. Bcero, tho energetic secretary to the Company, also has several specimens on view at his ollico, Larnbton quay.