Turu Taiaroa weighing in crayfish. (Photograph: N. M. Beaumont). shortage, not imagining that the annual output from one horse and a bin could be very great. However, hardly any time passed before various people at Otakou bought boats and obtained licenses. Others who had previously sold their catches to a rival firm were glad of an opportunity for a change. Rani soon flooded the Dunedin market. When the term of this first agreement was over, Otakou Fisheries could not hope to get rid of their output locally. In this way they were forced to enter the export market which was to bring them their greatest wealth. It was at that time, 1947, that Otakou Fisheries became a limited liability company, based on co-operative lines. Of the twenty-two shareholders, twenty were working for the fisheries. They all put something into the business; their investment was in those days a big sacrifice to many. The first shipment of fish to Sydney was in April 1947–£353 worth of fish, representing six weeks' output. One of Rani Ellison's first investments was to instal ultramodern freezers competing favourably with anything else in the district. After two years of operations, more fisherman gave their output to Otakou to handle than to any other distributor in Otago and Southland. The fish was still largely exported, but the shops of Dunedin now revived their interest in it because other companies no longer had enough fish left to supply them. At present there are, in addition to the company's own boats, 160 fishing vessels selling their catches to Otakou Fisheries. Quite a few of these are financed by the company. One can say that it is this mass support from the fishermen that made Otakou's great success possible. How was the support obtained? Principally. Rani Ellison says, it was a matter of honest dealing and good relations. In 1947, the export of crayfish to Melbourne started. No New Zealand firm had tried this before. At first the whole animal was sent, at 2d per pound, but this proved unsatisfactory. They then switched over to crayfish tails sent to Melbourne and cooked crayfish in tins sent to places like Singapore. After a few years Rani Ellison discovered by accident what happened to the craytails he sent to Melbourne. Evidently most or all of them never came on the Australian market, but were transshipped to the United States at a huge profit. In 1953, Otakou Fisheries began to export to the United States direct. Last year, sales totalled well over one million dollars. It is claimed that Otakou Fisheries is now the biggest single processor of craytails in the world. It has not been Otakou's principle to own their own boats (they have only two), but to leave the