Inquiry Opened In Chatham Islands

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32019, 20 June 1969, Page 1

Inquiry Opened In Chatham Islands

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 19. A preliminary inquiry into last week’s loss of two fishing boats opened in the Chatham Islands today, while fishermen throughout New Zealand were considering the Government’s ban on boat convoys to the islands’ crayfishing grounds.

The ban was imposed last night by the Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) on the ground that safety rules agreed to by the fishing industry were being flouted.

Some 16 boats, with 16 men, have been lost in voyages to and from the islands in the last three years. Strong winds continued in the Chathams today, but the Press Association’s special correspondent at Waitangi said tonight that the winds were dropping. The seas were stHl very high and the boats at the islands were unable to leave their moorings. ' “We have another storm warning out, but that’s becoming normal down here at the moment,** he said in a telephone report to Wellington. The correspondent reported that another vessel, the Mijay, had broken its moorings last night in the crashing seas and was beached at Waitangi. He reported little immediate reaction from the fishermen to the suspension of the convoy system. But he said it was clear that it would be impossible for many of the boats to return to New Zealand under the regulations which had existed before the convoy system was introduced in 1966. “The convoy system was very well received here, as it reduced a lot of expense and time-wasting incurred under the previous regulations,” he said. “But everyone here seems

to be impressed with what the Marine Department is trying to do to prevent further tragedies from unsuitable craft”

In Christchurch today, the president of the New Zealand Commercial Fishing Boat Owners' Association, Mr B. R. Walker, said it had been proved that the present method of sending small boats to the Chathams was unsafe. Mr Walker said hindsight showed that a system of factory ships with small dories

would have been the best method of exploiting the crayfish fields. The Marine Department announced today that a formal investigation would be held into the loss of two Nelson boats, the Golden Joy and Golden Dawn, in April, when one man was lost; and the police director of search and rescue operations, Superintendent L. D. Bridge, said he would go to the Chathmns in the next two or three weeks to examine rescue procedures there.