Appeal lodged over decision on toheroa

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 39

Appeal lodged over decision on toheroa

PA Levin The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will appeal against an historic Levin district Court decision which upheld traditional Maori fishing rights to take banned shellfish.

The Wanganui senior fisheries officer, Mr lan Stoneman, said an appeal had been lodged and would be heard in the High Court, but no date had been set. He declined to comment further.

In early May Judge Inglis dismissed charges against Pono Hakaria and Tony Scott of illegally taking toheroa, saying they had a right to do so under the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi. The two Palmerston North men were charged with illegally taking the shellfish from Waiterere Beach in October 1987. Taking toheroa from the beach has been illegal since 1979, when a complete ban was placed on it

to try to restore depleted stocks. Some Maoris in the area predicted, the shellfish would be extinct in the area within a year if people did not stop taking them.

Judge Inglis said the Fisheries Act had a provsion which did not allow it to affect Maori fishing rights. He said Maori fishing rights were outlined in the second act of the Treaty of Waitangi which said the rights held by the Maori people should remain exclusive and undistribed as long as they wished and desired to use them.

Judge Inglis said Mr Hakaria and Mr Scott had a right as members of the Ngati Raukawa tribe to gather shellfish from Waiterere Beach. Both the MAF and local Maoris expressed concern that the decision would be interpreted as an invitation for any Maori person

to take toheroa from the beach, endangering the existence of the shellfish.

At the time, Mr Stoneman said the ministry was arranging to hand authority for issuing licences over to local kaumatua and honorary fisheries officers, but was being hindered by boundary disputes, between the Muaupoko and Ngati Raukawa tribes. He said it was not clear which kaumatua should issue licences for which area, leaving the way clear "for just about anybody to claim the right to take shellfish.”

At the time of the May hearing, a fisheries research co-ordinator, Mr Te Pehi Parata, of Waitarere Beach, said the deciding factors in the case were that the toheroa had been taken with the blessing of a kaumatua and were gathered for a special hui between their two families.