TOHEROA REGULATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 17

TOHEROA REGULATIONS

S i r —This subject greatly exercised the minds of leading citizens m this district for many years, and after man> consultations with Chief-Inspector Herford and other Government officials the toheroa regulations were framed an "■azetted. It has been very interesting to read the recent correspondence on the subject. It is quite misleading to state that people are being harassed by regulations and inspectors from taking toheroas for food. This is certainly not so While it is necessary to have supervision. the inspectors, who hold honorary positions, are tactful, give the general public every latitude, sound advice, and quite sufficient earning. If warnings are not heeded those concerned are looking for all that is coming to them. There are regulations in force governing oysters and mussels, for the compulsory stopping of waste. Then why should not the toheroa come under these laws? In the past, these popular shellfish beds were completely robbed of toheroas. irrespective of size, by all and sundry. Whether all were used as food or destroyed is a matter of conjecture. Fifty ordinary-sized toheroas are quite sufficient for a family of five, and as the regulations do not debar five members of one family from lifting 250 toheroas a day, is it possible that these numbers can be consumed? I think not. It has been suggested that motor-cars dropping oil on the beaches is responsible for the shortage. This is absurd for at Chase s and Bayly's Gorge, West Coast, where the motor traffic has increased fourfold, there are more shellfish now than have been for rears. It is not unusual to see approximately 300 to 400 people engaged in digging toheroas during the season. It would be very difficult to estimate in tons the amount of toheroas removed from this locality in the digging season. The whole thing boils down to one point, the public do not know the value of a good thing until governed by regulations. Then complaints pour in, but if people stopped to think they would realise their own error. The Government regulations for two months' closing, preventing breaking of the shellfish below high-water mark, taking smaller toheroas than 3in., have had a wonderful result in increasing the number of the shellfish beyond one's imagination. Therefore, to sift the position to bedrock, is it not better to prevent the shortage by restrictions than reach the same condition by wastage? W. H. Cliffe. Hon. Sec., West Coast Toheroa Committee.