552 EEPORT — 1891. 



and recognised by most scientists as a variety only of that 

 highly-esteemed species, Ostrea ediilis, represents the com- 

 mercial type indigenous to the shores of Tasmania, Victoria, 

 and the southern districts of South Australia. New Zealand 

 also produces in her southern waters a species of oyster 

 identical with or very closely allied to the British type, and 

 enjoying the superior advantage of possessing, under natural 

 conditions, the smooth, suborbicular, polished shell and full 

 luscious body which can only be artificially produced in the 

 British native by a prolonged course of culture and manipula- 

 tion. I refer here to the celebrated Bluff or Stewart Island 

 oyster, in which New Zealand undoubtedly possesses a valuable 

 property, that should be most jealously protected from reckless 

 dissipation. New Zealand is further fortunate in producing in 

 great abundance in her northern waters the sub-tropical com- 

 mercial oyster, Ostrea glomerata, commonly denominated the 

 rock-oyster, in contradistinction to 0. edulis, which is usually 

 and somewhat detrimentally named a mud variety. New Zea- 

 land has hitherto produced such an abundance of these two 

 oysters that she has exported largely of both kinds to the Aus- 

 tralian Colonies of Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales. 

 How long she will be in a position to maintain this supply is a 

 matter that will undoubtedly demand grave consideration in 

 the near future. The commercial oyster indigenous to New 

 South Wales and Queensland is the rock-oyster, Ostrea glome- 

 rata, indistinguishable from the form produced in the northern 

 waters of New Zealand. Its southernmost range on the Aus- 

 tralian coast-line is the Genoa Eiver estuary, just within the 

 border-line of Victoria, while its maximum of development is 

 undoubtedly attained in Moreton and Wide Bays, on the 

 Queensland coast, whence vast quantities are annually ex- 

 ported to Sydney and Melbourne. The same species of oyster 

 attains to a sufficient size, and occurs in sufficient quantity, to 

 be of commercial value as far up the Queenslajud coast as 

 Rockhampton. Beyond this point it dwindles in dimensions 

 and numbers, but nevertheless may be found in a stunted 

 form as far away as Port Darwin and Cambridge Gulf, in the 

 remote Northern Territory, at both of which places I gathered 

 it some two years since. From growths of this species I have 

 recently seen on the mangrove-roots in the Endeavour Eiver, 

 near Cooktown, I am of opinion that under favourable condi- 

 tions this oyster might be greatly improved and profitably cul- 

 tivated in tropical waters in, at all events, sufficient quantities 

 for local consumption. 



The commercial rock-oyster, Ostrea glomerata, last referred 

 to, may be described as an essentiall)^ estuarine or brackish- 

 water species, its most luxuriant growth being attained in river- 

 estuaries, or in situations where the salinity of the water is 



