MAORIS CAUGHT RED-HANDED IN TOHEROA RAID

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1949, Page 8

MAORIS CAUGHT RED-HANDED IN TOHEROA RAID

DARGAVILLE, This Day (P.A.). —The largest illegal toheroa raid on ■ the west coast beaches for many | years has been detected by a fish-; eries inspector, Mr A. H. Taylor, of Dargaville,. who intercepted a party of 16 Kaikohe Maoris in the act of taking away 3000 toheroas above their quota from Chase’s Gorge. I The quota for Maoris is 80 per person per visit.- Mr Taylor said today that the Maoris came down from' Kaikohe in a truck. They did not I take the vehicle on to the beach, so ; as to avoid suspicion. Instead they used a sledge pulled by two horses. They were intercepted on the road when they were about to commence their return journey to Kaikohe. j He added that a bad feature of the case was that the horses and sledge were lent by Maoris from a nearby native settlement. The toheroas were confiscated and were returned to Chase’s Gorge, to be dumped on the beach. . _ Mr Taylor mentioned another case recently ' when a truck driven by Whangarei people was driven on to Chase’s Gorge beach at 3.40 one morning. The people were intercepted and digging stopped. They had only a few over their quota. Toheroas on the beaches •.from Chase’s Gorge to Glink’s Gully were not breeding as they should be, although the coming.'breeding season looked promising, said Mr Taylor. He added, however,, that even with a good spawning season, when the beaches were closed from October to the end of November, the position would not improve to any great tent owing to the many illegal raids on’the beaches. He added that, although he Was carrying out numerous night patrols on the beaches, a “grape-vine” system forewarned the people, oi his visits.