OYSTER HISTORY

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1931, Page 6

OYSTER HISTORY

NOT ALL “STEWART ISLANDS.”

FIRST CATCH IN STRAIT.

If the average' New Zealander were asked where Stewart Island oysters come from he would probably reply, “From Stewart Island.” And he would be wrong. Not that there are no Stewart Island oysters. The real Stewart Island oysters, perhaps the most succulent bivalve in the world, the ‘‘Blue Point” (American) oysters notwithstanding, were or. iginally found at Port Adventure, on the east coast of Stewart Island, and were immensely appreciated by the early settlers and sailors who used to fish the waters of the south. They were quite a peculiar species of shellfish, just as large as the ordinary “Stewart” (as known to all), but of different habit and shape. These oysters, unlike those which the whole of New Zealand gets from. Foveaux Strait, propagate on the rooks in and round Port Adventure, and at a certain age they hive off into the deper waters in the vicinity. There are few people who know more of the oyster business in this country than does Captain Archibald Walker, of Easthorne, who was horn in Invercargill, and for many years was skipper oif the tug Awania, and later of the Theresa Ward (which he helped to design), sailed out from the Bluff, mostly to Half-Moon Bay, Paterson In. let, and other inlets, including Pegasus. Captain Walker states that the Port Adventure oysters, for over thirty years protected from spoliation, are certainly a distinct species, for not only do they breed on the rocks, after the fashion of rock oysters, hut they are different in shape, and have a deeper and more crinkly shell than the oysters sold here under the name of “Stewarts.” To the best of his belief the Port Adventure oysters have been protested for over thirty years, and he believes thei-e must he thousands of tons of them there at the present time. He' testifies to their superiority in flavour over the oysters from Foveaux Strait.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY

“Did you ever hear how Hie oysters were discovered in the Strait?” said Captain Walker. “It was either in 1874 or 1875. There was at that time a real hard case of a skipper sailing out of the Bluff in a ketch —Captain Scolley, he was called', but whether he had a ticket or not I could not say. He was in the habit of running down to Port Adventure, and eoming hack with a load of oysters for Invercargill. On one of his- runs home he encountered a heavy gale, blowing inshore, and there was an imminent chance of liis boat being driven ashore. He had no anchor, so in order to make a drag on the leeway the boat was making he thought of his oyster dredge, with its three-foot bar and chain bag. and over it went. It certainly did act as a drag, and held the boat until the worst of the gale subsided. When they went to pick up the dredge and get' under weigh, to the great surprise of the captain it was chock full of oysters. ••That was the first occasion on which anyone knew there were oysters on the bed of the Strait. The position was about five miles off the entrance to the Bluff, hut as Scolley had taken no exact hearings in the thick weather prevailing at the time of his experience lie was some weeks locating the spot; hut eventually he did so, and at length came upon the great oyster bed, twenty five miles in length, which has been feeding New Zealand ever since without any apparent diminution in supnly.”

■‘ln the old clays the dredge bar was never more than ■] feet in length, said Captain Walker. “Tin's acts as a sort of cutting scoop which, as it is dragged along the sandy bote torn of the Strait, scoops the oysters into the chain hag, suspended between the bar and the dredge line. Nowadays the dredge bar is as long as seven feet, as the oyster motor-boats are larger, and have more oower with which to handle the dredg,es.’’ THE SIX DOZEN .MAN. "i well remember the time 1 saw the record oyster-easter,” continued Captain Walker. “lie was a Pensylvunuain Yankee, twenty-three stone in weight, named Aston, who had been sent to New Zealand to consolidate the tobacco-selling agencies in the Dominion. i was an officer on the Itotomuhana at the time, and this man travelled with us from the Bluff to ( Melbourne. One day some of them were sitting on the after hatch in the sun yarning, when the chief steward asked the big American what he thought or the New Zealand oysters.

“ i I guess they are some oysters!’ said the Pennsylvanian, 'but they scarcely come up to our Blue Points which I think are the best oysters in the world.’ “ ‘How many Blue Points could you oat at a sitting if you were hungry?’ asked the steward with something definite at the back of his mind. “ ‘When hungry, 1 guess T could cat ten dozen, done in egg and bread crumbs. 5

‘Ts that so? said the chief steward. ‘Well, Pll bet you a sovereign that you cannot eat ton dozen Stewarts at a sitting.’ ‘That’s all very well said the American. ‘Now we are three hundred miles awnv from New Zealand. Where are the ovsters ?’ “ ‘Oh Walker’s got a sack in the tank. 5