Jet boat order invalid

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 6

Jet boat order invalid

A notice issued last year by the Minister of Transport, Mr Gair, ordering Marine Enterprises, Ltd, to stop running jet boat excursions on a portion of the Shotover River in Otago has been ruled invalid by Mr Justice Roper in a reserved decision given in the High Court.

Initially, Marine Enterprises had defied the directive from the Minister to cease operating its jet boats on the lower Shotover River between Tucker’s Beach and the Edith Cavill Bridge. The company complied with the order, however, after an interim injunction was granted in the High Court on January 5. On April 2 Marine Enterprises challenged the validity of the ministerial decision which limited jet boat trips on that portion of the Shotover River to one operator, Shotover Gorge Jet Boats, Ltd, on the ground of safety. The notice restricting jet boat operation to one company was issued at the instigation of the Lakes District Waterways Authority which was set up in June, 1983, as a joint committee of local authorities in the area to control waters in the region. Mr T. J. Shiels, of

Dunedin, appeared for Marine Enterprises, which applied for the review of the Minister’s decision; Mr J. M. Flaus for the Minister, Mr A. Black for Shotover Gorge Jet Boats, Ltd; and Mr A. J. Forbes for the Lakes District Waterways Authority.

Mr Justice Roper, in his decision, said there was a motion before the Court to review the validity of regulations under the Harbours Act, 1950, and a Gazette notice which was purported to be made under the authority of those regulations was challenged.

Marine Enterprises was anxious to conduct commercial jet boat operations on the Shotover River between Tucker’s Beach and the

Edith Cavill Bridge where presently a rival company, Shotover Gorge Jet Boats, had a virtual monopoly of the tourist trade.

The regulation under which the Minister had issued the notice read: "The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, reserve the use of the lower Shotover River for the use of any class of vessel, and may prohibit bathing, fishing or water ski-ing, and the use of any other class of vessel.” What the Minister had done by the notice was to reserve the use of the lower Shotover “for jet boats operated by Shotover Gorge Jet Boats or any other vessel authorised by it” and prohibited all other vessels or class of vessel, fishing and bathing.

Whether intended or not, it read that rafts and surfboards did not by definition come within the prohibition. Further, although all classes of vessels are prohibited, water ski-ing was not, a circumstance which could raise an interesting argument.

It had been submitted byMr Shiels that the Minister’s notice had not amounted to a reservation for the use of “a class of vessel" as provided by the regulation. The order appeared to authorise Shotover Gorge to do something which was not within the Minister’s own power. Mr Justice Roper made an order that the notice issued by the Minister was invalid. He left it to counsel to decide the next step.