Fishing Limits Concern Harbour Board

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1939, Page 3

Fishing Limits Concern Harbour Board

Negotiations are being made by the Whangarei Harbour Board to preserve the fishing grounds outside the Whangarei harbour.

At today’s meeting of the board -it was decided to approach the Government requesting ■ that the grounds within a line from Bream Tail to Sail Rock, thence to the Hen and Chickens, and .across to Bream Head, be closed for both trawlers and seine-netters.

Only the harbours of Whangarei, Tutukaka and Whangaruru are closed for seine-netters. The coast from Waipu Cove to the Whangarei Harbour entrance is closed for trawling but open to seine netting. Mr. J. A. Finlayson, chairman of the board, said that seine netting was as bad as trawling. Destructive Practice. ' “It is not what the trawlers catch, but what they destroy on the feeding grounds of the fish,” commented Mr E. W. Rickard.

Another aspect of the fishing industry was mentioned by Mr. P. R. Gardner, when he remarked that he had seen 800 sharks caught in the Kaipara harbour by a party of Maoris in one day. “These sharks must deplete the supply of edible fish, and there should be an opening for an industry that could catch and prepare the sharks for the market,” he said. “There are not as many sharks about today as there were years ago,” said Mr. H. E. Hewlett. “They have disappeared with the fish, as there is not now enough food for them here.”

T HE third biennial award of a tra-

veiling scholarship was made in Wellington yesterday by the New Zealand Institute of Accountants. The winner was Mr N. H. Chapman, 8.C0m., of Christchurch, aged 24. He will probably leave the Dominion in about three months. The institute, in accordance with practice, will endeavour to secure for him a position with a London firm. The scholarship is of the value of £l7O, tenable for two years.

It is announced that British Empire and American woolgrowers have arranged for the former to present a dress to Mrs Roosevelt, made of British wools, and for the latter to present a dress to Queen Elizabeth made of American wools. The idea is to symbolise the historic role which wool has played in the development of the trade and commerce of the nations.