Registering Small Boats Considered

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30643, 8 January 1965, Page 8

Registering Small Boats Considered

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 7.

Small-boat owners should know later this year if they have to register their craft—for indentification purposes—with either a recognised boat club or under a national registration scheme, a Marine Department spokesman said today.

A “small-boat committee” has been set up within the department to establish whether registration of small pleasure boats was feasible. He said that in about three months the committee would have completed its report to the Minister of Marine (Mr Scott). “Cannot Say” “But as yet we cannot say if we will recommend boat registration. There again, the Government may turn our

recommendation down,” he said.

Late last year, Marine Department officials met representatives of major boating organisations to discuss the possibility of national registration. It was thought some type of registration was necessary so boats could be quickly identified if they were in danger of foundering, missing or stolen, breaching rules of seamanship, or in difficulties.

The department spokesman said the "small-boat committee” was working on two possibilities for registration.

One was for boats to be registered with a recognised club which had its own system of registration. The other was for a national registration scheme whereby small boats would be given a registration mark.

The committee is sifting through information on small boat registration techniques from Britain, the United States, and Australia.