THE OYSTER SEASON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2172, 23 April 1908, Page 2

THE OYSTER SEASON.

GOVERNMENT AS FISH DEALERS NEW REGULATIONS. Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 22. Friday wee„k next will mark the opening of the local oyster season, and it extends into October, but during that ]ieriod all and sundry are. debarred under a £2 penalty from picking oysters. Hitherto tho Government has protected tho northern fisheries and oyster beds by prohibiting the picking of oysters in season without a license. Under the regulations now ill force, however, even the licenses are done away with, and the Government alone will work the oyster beds. The new regulations provido for the taking over by the Marine Department of the control and 6ale of the North Island oysters. No further licenses will be issued to pickers during the coming season. Opening on May the Ist the Department will commence by working tho beds at Waihelce Island," Pakiki, and Great Barrier Islands, and those in the middle sub-division of tho northern fisheries. Retailers and others desiring to purchase oysters must negotiate through the Marine Department. The price to be charged is 12s 6d per sack, not less than a single sack to be sold. “The new system will work well,” said a leadiug Auckland fish merchant to-day, “but tho Government, by charging 12s 6d per sack, is going to make full half of that amount clear profit. In such a good season as this, it should be an easy matter to get the oysters picked at 6s per sack at AA'aihekc, and sold in Auckland at 7s. Anyone can easily pick three sacks at a tide, and some seasons, when the ovsters were plentiful, we used to get them picked at 2s 6d per sack. Last season the pickers combined and rose the price up to 14s and 16s, with tho result that the public had to pay unfair prices. While the action of the Government in taking up the wholesale oyster business cuts against us, it will at least prevent a recurrence of such combination as was responsible for the high prices last year.