WHITEBAIT REGULATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20621, 21 July 1930, Page 8

WHITEBAIT REGULATIONS.

So many things arc done by regulation nowadays that if the term "whitebait regulations" arouses expectation of a set of rules prescribing when the young inanga shall swim upstream and when down, only the tendency of the times and of Governments need be blamed. The tentative regulations officially circulated arc not quite so absurd as that, but almost. Their aim is to restrict the taking of whitebait, for domestic supply and for sale. Those who do not contemplate selling the catch, that is to say, those fishing for sport or for a meal in immediate pr&ipect, may use only hand nets "the openings of which must not exceed live square feet," while the quantity taken a day must not exceed two quarts. The five-foot opening is generous enough ; it will allow most whitebait to enter. On the other side, there seems something missing'. Nothing has been said about the size of the mesh, nor is there any minimum size of lisli that can be legally retained. Surely the fisherman should be made to sort his 'latch and return the small ones to t.hc water. The allowance of two quarts will appear ample to the family accustomed to seeing a couple of tumbler-fulls made to go round. These are a few points from the restrictions placed on the taking of whitebait in the North Island. Different regulations have been framed for the South Island. The NorthSouth issue introduced by regulation ! The serious feature of the position is that with regulations there will have to be inspectors or rangers to see that they arc observed, and then other officials, demanding higher salaries, at the expense of the taxpayer, to see that the rangers do their duty. Whitebait will be made scarcer and dearer, as rock-oysters have been. Private enterprise has been legislated and regulated out of this field, oysters have become dearer and dearer, when a profitable industry might have been built up and supplies developed instead of diminished. As far as any menace to the whitebait supplies goes, the depredations of natural enemies, the disturbance caused by such happenings as the silting of the Waikato from Arapuni, or by the plying of launches are more likely to affect them than years of fishing. What this over-governed and over-regu-lated country needs is a little more freedom, rather fewer solemnly foolish regulations, and a great deal less officialism. The growth of the modern mania for restriction, regulation and petty interference was never better illustrated thap by the whitebait regulations.