Sixty Million Oysters Sold Last Season

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26904, 16 October 1948, Page 8

Sixty Million Oysters Sold Last Season

P.A. INVERCARGILL, Oct. 15. During the oyster season just ended the Railways Department handled 86.739 sacks of oysters, which were sent to all parts of New Zealand. An ordinary oyster sack holds about 60 dozen .oysters, and on this basis more than 5,000,000 dozen, or 60,300,000 oysters, were carried by the department. In carrying these oysters, 1059 railway bogey trucks, which are twice the size of ordinary railway trucks, were used. These figures were supnlied by the district traffic manager, Mr W. H. Preston. Of the 86,739 sacks, 7510 were sent from Bluff to Invercargill, and from there to country stations in Southland. Gore received 1135 sacks, Dunedin 17,181 sa 'ks, and stations north of Dunedin (excluding Timaru) received 5233 sacks. There were 1195 sacks sent to Timaru. Some of the 28,958 sacks consigned from Bluff to Christchurch were sent to Blenheim and Westport, and from those stations probably to various points in the Marlborough and West Coast districts. All the oysters sent to the North Island by rail were consigned to Wellington, but were despatched from there to northern stations. There were 25,527 sacks sent to Wellington.