FISHING BOATS' CREWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 213, 6 September 1907, Page 5

FISHING BOATS' CREWS.

BAD CHARACTERS BARRED. (By Telegraph Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. To-night's "Gazette" contained the following regulations for the conduct of fishing boats: (a) The owner of any licensed fishing boat shall be responsible for the good conduct of the crew of the boat, and shall not employ, or allow to be employed or to go on board his boat nny person known to the police to be a thief or a person of dissolute habits or bad character; (b) the owner or crew of any licensed fishing boat shall not carry on board any firearms unless authorised to dp so in writing by the Collector of Customs, who may, if satisfied that firearms are required for a legitimate purpose, grant such permission; (c) it shall be illegal to carry a dog on board any licensed fishing boat when out of the port to which the boat belongs. The regulations embodied in this notification have been made to provide against an extraordinary state of things disclosed in the course of various Police Court cases. While the fishermen engaged in the port of Auckland are on the whole a well-behaved body of men, there are—or there h-ave been—among them a number of undesirables who have been a terror to law-abiding citizens. A police officer some time ago deplored the disadvantages under which the force was expected to cope with the

"oyster boys." He mentioned several suspicious deaths, and said that it was not surprising that with so much drunken debauchery going on some of the boats should be in a disgustingly filthy condition.

Now that regulations affecting the character of The applicants for fishing licenses have been gazetted the Collector of Customs will be able to exercise a discretionary power in issuing the permits, with result that the habitual criminals which have long been •associated with the fishing industry will be weeded out.