FIXED PRICES AND LESS FISH

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 2, 28 September 1943, Page 4

FIXED PRICES AND LESS FISH

Position In Wellington EFFECT ON ACTIVITIES OF CATCHERS Thousand's of people in. Wellington are worried because they cannot buy fish at any .price. This has been the case in Wellington for the last two or three weeks. Primarily the local famine in fish has been due to bad weather in Cook Strait. It is from there that the bulk of local fish supplies come, caught, for the most part with set lines, manipulated by the owners of the fishing launches, harboured at Island Bay, most of whom are Italians.

This is only part of the story according to answers to inquiries made yesterday. Up till the beginning of last month fish was sold by auction freely in the public markets of Allen Street,, where retailers and proprietors of restaurants could purchase their supplies in the fairest competitive manner. Then the Price Tribunal stepped in by Gazette notice on July 29, and fixed a complete scale of fixed prices which had to be paid the fishermen, in the first instance, and the wholesale price (to retailer® in the second). It is interesting to quote these wholesale prices as it is suggested that these have caused the present famine. They are as follows: —For’ groper, hake:, trumpeter, and bonito, blue cod, and 1 butterllsh, 71 per lb.; ling, 6d. per lb.; John Dory, schnapper. and terakihi moki, sd. per lb.; warehou, 6d.; red cod 3i|d.; gurnard 4d.; fiats (soles and flounders), lid. Then there is another scale for smoked fish, extending from 1/2 per lb. downwards. These prices, it seems, are satisfactory when the weather is fair and the fishing good, but they do not meet the case when the weather is fpui*and the catches small. 'So the Island Bay fishermen, rather thaw risk their boats and plant, do not venture forth much in bad weather, as they have found by experience that it is not worthwhile. Then again they have been hampered by the, existing war-time regulations, which only allow them to fish under permit during the 'hours of daylight:. In order to do that they have .to secure a permit from the controlling officer at Island Bay each morning, in short, it now only really pays them to fish “when the going is good.” In bad weather their catches are for the most part so small that the fixed prices obtainable for their fish do not warrant the work entailed; whereas, of there was an open auction market, prices would advance in a natural... way because of the scarcity of fish. Fishing by set line in Cook Strait is an undertaking that depends bn the tides, rather than hours of daylight and darkness. These lines, each ending iu a large canvas covered buoy wlt.lx a pole extending upward from the centre (so that they cau be the more readily located), are set at slack tide. They must be attended to before the full flow of the tide, because such is its strength iu the Strait that the buoy is carried under, or partially under, and the pole is rendered less visible to the searching eye,. Thus the restrictions of fishing to the hours of daylight makes the job one that can only be profitably undertaken (under fixed prices) when the weather is fair and the tides favourable for daylight fishing. Wellington is the only city selling fish by auction has ceased. “The solution to the scarcity of fish in Wellington is easy,” said Mr. F. Gill, general manager of the firm of Townsend and Paul, Ltd., -which has managed the fish auction market in the past. “All that needs to be done is for the Government to liberate one of the New Zealand Fisheries’ trawlers, either the Nora Niven or Futurist, cut out the fixed prices and restore the auctions. At present there is no chance of much betterment, as the fishermen say that their catches are so small iu bad weather that, at the prices fixec'l, it does not pay them for their hard work, plus the wear and tear on their boats and plant.” I