OYSTER SEASON MAY RESUME

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32005, 4 June 1969, Page 1

OYSTER SEASON MAY RESUME

Cabinet Approval Awaited

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, June 3. Moves made by the Seamen’s Union in Wellington may result in the reopening of the oyster fishing season after next Monday’s meeting of the Cabinet.

There is no likelihood that the Government will accede to the request made by fishermen that the oyster industry should be examined by a court of inquiry. Other terms of a suggested agreement are: That existing boats should be allowed to return to the fishing grounds. That no further licences should be granted. That the Southern Enterprise should be permitted to work with a union crew.

The Cabinet has not been brought up to date with the dispute this week. It was not mentioned when the Cabinet met this morning, and there will not be another meeting before next Monday. In the event of a complete agreement, there would have to be an Order-in-Council before the season could be reopened. It is unlikely that this could occur before next Tuesday.

The dispute has developed over the last nine years. Before 1960, 10 boats were licensed for Foveaux Strait, averaging 80,000 sacks a year. After bitter complaints about monopolies, the then Minister of Marine (Mr R. G. Gerard) recommended that the restriction on oyster boat licences should be removed. 31 Licences A select committee of Parliament confirmed this, and it became effective on February 15, 1964. Between then and 1968 the number of boats increased to 22, and the annual catch to 164,000 sacks. During this .year the number of licences had grown to 31, eight of which were not being used.

This year the Southern Enterprise entered the trade. It was constructed primarily for oyster fishing, and the majority of shareholders were Southland retailers who claimed they were not adequately served by the existing trade. Merchants have denied this. The Southland branch of the Seamen’s Union warned the

building company that the union would resist attempts to put the vessel into operation.

However, the Southern Enterprise began fishing last April. The crew, being shareholders, held they were not bound by a decision of the union to refuse to man further boats. Since then, the Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) has had a number of discussions with the union, which asked that licences be restricted to 22 until the capacity of the beds could be proved. In mid-May Mr Scott Informed the Government that he saw no alternative to closing the season.

Mr Shand’s Part The Government then asked the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) to intervene, as the immediate dispute had become one between the Southland branch of the Seamen's Union and the owners of Southern Enterprise. Mr Shand's proposal was that the number of operative boats in the trade should be limited to those then fishing (23, including the Southern Enterprise), that the eight non-operative licences should be suspended, that the industry should be relicensed, and that no further licences should be issued until, in the opinion of a suitable licensing authority, further licences were justified by the availability of more oysters. When it was learned that these conditions were not acceptable to the Southland branch of the Seamen's Union, Mr Scott closed the season by order in council on May 20 until further notice.