CONTROL OF BOATS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 9

CONTROL OF BOATS

Registration Sought

He had always been puzzled that the registration of small craft was deferred, and it seemed that the Marine Department was not prepared to tackle the problem, Mr F. L Sutton said at. the Lyttelton Harbour Board meeting yesterday.

“We see small craft buzzing around the harbour reck-j lessly and there is little j chance of detecting them; when they are not num- | bered,” he said. The Harbours Association had tried very hard to get registration, the chairman (Mr L. G. Amos) said. The Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) had told the association that it was not prepared to introduce registration at present. He had referred to a j complaint about the number! of unidentified craft involved in breaches of the law, but! said this did not persuade 1 him to support compulsory registration at present. “You should know something about this,” Mr Amos said to a new member, Mr R. G. Gerard, a former Minister of Marine.

Mr Gerard: Too much. He added that Mr Sutton had summed up the position by saying that there were objections. It was four years since he had argued against them.

The objections did not all come from small craft owners, Mr J. E. Mannering said. He knew of two small craft clubs who had been pressing for registration for their own protection but had not been able to get anywhere with the Marine Department One club had its own registration scheme.

The board agreed to raise the matter again by a remit to the Harbours Association.