MUST BE REPORTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1941, Page 9

MUST BE REPORTED

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

OFFENCE BY FISHERMAN

SUBSTANTIAL FINE

The duties of the public, which they must carry out when they come across tangible evidence of thg war in the form of flotsam and jetsam from sunken or stranded ships, were stressed by Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., iri the Magistrate's Court; today when Wilfred Thomas McManaway, a fisherman, of Karehana Bay, pleaded guilty to secreting seven drums of oil which came from the Armadale, some time ago involved in a collision in the vicinity of Cook Strait.

"In times such as these," said the Magistrate, "when unfortunately ships iftay be wrecked or stranded or otherwise damaged, not by the ordinary reasons of the sea, and cargo is likely to be found drifting or being washed ashore, it becomes particularly important that the seaside-living public, and those who go to the sea for fishing, should know their definite duties and responsibilities. Their definite .duty or responsibility is to report the matter to the Marine Department, or to the nearest police officer, and to be ready, if necessary, to deliver the cargo discovered."

There was, of course, the right to get compensation for salvage, said the Magistrate, and that was a matter to be dealt with in the proper way. If the obligations were not in future carried out the Court would have to consider imposing the maximum penalty. Senior-Sergeant Paine said that McManaway buried five drums of oil in his backyard, and said that his object in. secreting them was to prevent his neighbours from talking. On the day he was interviewed by the police he came.into town, saw his solicitor, and put in a claim for salvage. Mr. S. G. Stephenson, counsel for the defendant, said that a number of residents, of the district were genuinely concerned in their minds as to their respective rights. Some were saying that they were entitled to ■take the oil, or sell it. McManaway had not received the best of educations* When he reciivered the drums he was warned of the danger of fire, and accordingly buried some of them in the sand"1 in his section. When interviewed, on January 14, he was actually in the act of leaving his house to go to the city in 'order to make inquiries as to his position regarding the orf, and a claim for salvage was made the same day. . McManaway had never attempted to sell or dispose of the oil, and had not used it for his own purposes

After hearing evidence by McManaway, the Magistrate imposed a fine of £15. v