Maori fishery policy attacked

Press, 26 April 1988, Page 28

Maori fishery policy attacked

PA Rotorua ..The Government ap-! pears set on a policy to create a separate Maori; fishery with advantages over other races, according to the Recreational Fishing Council. A working party set up to hear submissions and report back by June 30 was likely to confirm what the Government had already decided, said the council's chairman, Mr Ray Williams. The council was concerned that amateur fishing in Hawke’s Bay was now policed by an honorary officer system involving 19 Maori and only four European rangers, he said.

Already there had been instances in which fishermen had had fish confiscated by Maori people on the basis that the fish had been taken from Maori fishing grounds. This had happened in Northland, Manukau. Pukehina and Matata, as well as in Hawke’s Bay. The incidents seriously jeopardised the concept strongly supported by the council that all New Zealand waters should be available to everyone and that fisheries protection should not contain!- any bias, Mr Williams said. He favoured continuation of existing rights for Maori people .to have at] cess to shellfish arid.' seafood for cultural occasions such as hui and tangi, the only restrictions being on the size of fish taken. However, there should be no separate rights onia general recreational fishing basis. Mr Williams said the Government needed to define urgently the Treaty of Waitangi interpretation of a Maori fishery. “We find it hard to accept that the Government has set up a working party on Maori fisheries when in fact we have no defined Maori fisheries areas," he said.