FRIDAY’S FISH

Evening Star, Issue 23352, 23 August 1939, Page 7

FRIDAY’S FISH

REGULATIONS STIFLE PRODUCTION FIVE-DAY WEEK AFFEBTS CRAYFISH That fishermen who have been seeking Government [protection for their industry should themselves fall financial victims to that protection might seem to some people to be merely a kind of poetic justice. The men themselves appear to evince some bewilderment at the state of affairs, apparently not realising that, to a certain extent, they are, and will be, “ hoist with their own petard.” At a meeting of Karitane fishermen on Saturday night one speaker mentioned that that week there had been trouble with the marketing of crayfish. The catch had been sent to Dunedin and there had been no one to take delivery of it; consequently the Railway Department’had sold it. The cause of the hitch had not been ascertained.

Actually, there was no hitch; it was merely the first working experience the fishermen had had with the new labour conditions ruling. That particular consignment had been sent to a canning firm which was unable to work the fish on Saturday owing to the conditions of the new award. To obtain satisfactory results crayfish must be canned within four hours of their receipt, and no other course was open to the firm but to reject these unsolicited fish. Representations had been made to the Arbitration Court that fishermen would lose a day. but the court’s ruling had not been affected and, during the crayfish season, the canning firms must work a 40-hour week.

Companies which have been engaged in freezing tails of crayfish did not formerly come under the scone of this award, but conditions have altered, and they, too, in the future will have to close down This closes the two main avenues to the. fishermen for selling their wares on Saturday. There remain the fish shops, and the Railway Department utilised this avenue to clear the small consignment of crayfish which arrived at Dunedin. But it does not seem that this will become the regular practice. It is understood that the Government plan for the industry as a whole insists that all fish must pass through the hands of the merchants. In this way they will be able to keep the entire trade under review. But in that case how will the fishermen unload the fish which they now sell on Saturdays? Friday is an unlucky day for seafarers, and it seems as though that section which works the crayfish pots will be more than ever convinced of the truth of this. Crayfish pots are as a rule left out for days on end, and it is seldom that a launch is large enough to carry all the pots which the crew are working. This means that they are

worked seven days of the week, being baited and left out overnight, and if the fishermen are unable to sell Friday’s fish the system is disrupted. Crayfish can bo kept alive for a considerrhle time, and. indeed, they must be sold still kicking or they, like all shellfish, are dangerous to the consumer. But if three days’ fish, those caught on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, are to he unloaded on the market or the cannery on Monday of every week, it h more limn possible that a percentage will nob find a'sale.