Good Oyster Season.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1922, Page 4

Good Oyster Season.

WELLINGTON, August 31. A very satisfactory account of the condition of the oyster beds in the Hamaki Gulf and Bay of Islands was given bv the chief inspector of fisheries. Mr L. F. Ay son, who has been in Auckland in connection with the oyster-picking. He stated that there were quite sufficient first-class oysters in sight to last till the end of the season, or till the middle of October, when picking ceased. As a matter of fact, said Mr A.vson, the supply from several beds which were in condition for picking would not be requited this season, notably the northern beds at Kaipara, and Maunganui. The local beds, in the Hauraki Gulf,” were heavily stocked with oysters of various ages and in this area there wore sufficient supplies in sight for the next two or three years. The same remark applied to the beds in the Bay of Islands and both a leas were in exceptionally good condition.

AVitli the object of extending the beds, it was the intention of the Marine Department to continue oyster euUivatic.n in the coming summer, both in the Gulf and the Bay of Islands. The cultivation work carried

out during the last few years was giving very satisfactory results. Of the rock walls built in different localities nearly all were now well covered with young cysteis. In a few years these sources should give a substantial increase in the supply. The demand was steadily increasing and it seemed certain that the New Zealand market could easily absorb a much larger quantity of oysters than was as yet a v. n: 1able fr. pi Up beds.

COUNTESS ROBBED. PARIS, July 15. Three international thieves, 'Prosper Steinno'.i who posed usually as a man of means and frequented the principal hotels of Europe, and his companions, Mariot and Gaston Aubriot, were sentenced yesterday to long teams

cf imprisonment at the Seine Assizes for the theft of a £12,000 from the Countess do Nuce, a dancer. Stteinnon was introduced to the countess at Ostend two years ago. and met her again in Paris with his friends whom he introduced to her as a stockbroker and his secretary respectively. The trio induced the countess to take a night ride through the Forest of Fontainebleau, and in the middle of the Forest held a revolver to ber head while Aubriot tore her trinkets from her neck. The countess was then left in the forest and the car drove off. Two days Inter Aubriot and Mariot were arrested in a night lnr at Montmartre and Steinnon. who had returned to Belgium, was identified by the police some time later.