COBDEN WHITEBAITING

Grey River Argus, 21 November 1941, Page 2

COBDEN WHITEBAITING

Borough Council’s Request THAT REGULATIONS BE NOT ENFORCED. A resolution that the Council request the Fisheries Department not to enforce the prohibition of whitebait fishing on the Cobden side of the Grey River, until such time as the sewerage scheme is carried out in Cobden, was passed unanimously at last evening’s meeting of the Greymouth Borough Council. Cr. P. Bliarichfield, Junr., moving the resolution, said that it would affect the people of the area, but more particularly those in Cobden. He had thought the matter out, and considered that this was the best way to deal with the prohibition. Apparently the Fisheries Department was labouring under the misapprehension that there was a sewerage system operating on both sides of the river. However, there was none on the Cobden side. Some people fished in order to get a few extra pounds for their families. He considered that in any case, an injustice had been done to the people of Cobden. It was for’ the Council, as the mouthpiece of the people of the town, to take up the matter. No one else seemed to want to do so. The Council could ask the Department that if it would not rescin dits regulations, it would not rescind its regulations, on the Cobden side. Cr. G. R. Harker: Cr Blanchfield is quite right. There is no harm in fishing on the Cobden side, though there certainly is on this side.

“I was going to bring the matter up to-night,” said the Deputy-Mayor (Cr. H. Herring). “The Health Deportment were the prime movers and took up the matter with the Mayor (Mr F. A. Kitchingham). The Department then went to the Harbour Board who took no action. I thought that the matter had been dropped, but apparently that was not so. The regulation was passed, I think, without due thought. The sewerage, of course, discharges into the town side of the river, and night soil is tipped into the river on the Greymouth side early in the morning. There are no people fishing at that hour, and the soil has time t 0 dispurse. (Laughter.) However, it is a big hardship to a number of people in town and particularly in Cobden. There are many people who look on whitebait fismng as a mehns of paying their rates and other outgoings. As a matter of fact, I know two men who have fished each morning before work on the Grey Tiphead, and* have paid their rates out of it each year. Cr. Blanchfield: We could point out that millions of gallons of water passed down the river at a fast rate and dispenses the sewerage. The Depjjty-Mayor (smiling): I am worrying about trout fishing being prohibited ! Gr. Blanchfield: “The regulations only affect whitebait fishing.”