DELICACIES OF THE FIRST ORDER.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 7

DELICACIES OF THE FIRST ORDER.

The faces of the Native members of the House of Representatives' broadened into smiles of appreciation yesterday afternoon when a petition was read from a number of Maoris of Kawhia, asking that Europeans be prohibited from netting fish in the • Kawhia Harbour for marketing purposes.

' The petitioners claimed that the European fishermen on the shores of the harbour selected those fish which were suitable for the market, and discarded the sharks and stingrays, which they left on the shore to dry.

"Let it be understood," read the petition, "that these are delicacies with the Maori race, and they have been so from the days of our ancestors, even to the present. The Maoris fish for sharks and stingrays in the summer time, for in the winter they are allowed to spawn. We are therefore afraid that if the netting in the harbour continues it might considerably reduce our supplies of sharks and stingrays, for the Maoris consider them delicacies of the first order. We are desirous that the netting be confined to the ocean. Our petition to prohibit them has been brought on by the desire to protect our exclusive rights to our fishing reserves."

"Enough," concludes the petition, in characteristic Native heartiness. "Good health to the Speaker and the hon. members, under the blessing of the All Highest. Enough."

The Native Affairs Committee, which considered the petition, had no recommendation to make.