NEW ZEALAND FISHERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15143, 6 November 1912, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND FISHERIES.

Having regard to the important part which fish play in the national food supplies of the people, it is a matter for no small surprise that so little attention has been devoted to this question by successive Governments. While older countries have been sparing no efforts to acquire the fullest and most scientific data possible concerning their food fishes, we in New Zealand have been content to go on in a more or less haphazard fashion. Few if any experiments have been made on an .adequate scale to ascertain the

variety, habits, or abundance of the fish around our coast, while all manner of restrictions on fishing are imposed without apparently sufficient knowledge or justification. Considering the very close connection that exists between an abundant supply of cheap fish and tne cost of living .we are strongly of opinion that the. Government would be warranted in entirely overhauling its Fisheries Department. The vagaries of that Department are growing intolerable. It appears to have got prohibition on the brain. It would almost seem that if it had its own sweet way there would be no fishing at all in this part of the Dominion. It is restricting the catching of whitebait in the Waikato River it is restricting the catching of sea fish in the gulf; it is restricting trout fishing by its absurd regulations against'the sale of fish. Were its interference dictated by special and expert knowledge there would at least be something to say for it, but that excuse cannot always be advanced to justify its actions. But be this as it may the" Government cannot afford to go on remaining indifferent to the growing public dissatisfaction in connection with this question of the Dominion's fisheries.