POLLUTION BY OIL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 280, 23 August 1934, Page 4

POLLUTION BY OIL

Extension of Three-mile Limit HARBOUR BOARD REMIT Qil pollution of coastal waters is a subject of a remit to be submitted to the twelfth Harbours Conference by the Wellington Harbour Board. The remit reads: — That, in the opinion of this conference, the Oil in Territorial Waters Act, 1926, should be amended so as to extend its operation sufficiently beyond the three-mile limit to prevent the pollution of tbe waters and coastline of New Zealand. The chairman of the board, Mr. T. K. Barter, said last evening that as a result of representations made to it by the Association, the Government in 1926 introduced and had passed into law the “Oil in Territorial Waters Act.” The association pointed out to the Government at the time that the limitation of the Act to the present territorial limit of three miles would not fully achieve the desired object, and a special jurisdiction of 50 miles from the main coastline was asked for, after allowing for prevailing winds, tidal and ocean currents, and physical features. “It was pointed out that in America,” he continued, “in a similar Act, a prohibitive line of 100 miles of the coastline had been made effective, as the pollution there by oily discharges was causing an ever-increasing amount of damage to the usefulness of its shores for bathing, to the large supplies of sea food, fish, shell,, fish, destroying large numbers of birds, besides damaging the hulls of pleasure craft and creating a fire menace in the harbours.”