LICENCE TO TRAWL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 12

LICENCE TO TRAWL

NEW ZEALAND WATERS AUSTRALIAN APPLICATION NOT LIKELY TO BE GRANTED [bt TELEGRAPH —OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON. Friday Ail application for a licence to take fish in New Zealand waters by means of two steam trawlers, for the purpose of supplying the Australian market, has been made to the Bureau of Industry by Cam and Sons Proprietary, Limited, Sydney. It is unlikely that any decision will be given until the. Government has had an opportunity of giving full consideration to the report of the Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee. As the New Zealand Government has no jurisdiction outside the three-mile territorial limits, it is obviously the desire of the Australian company to trawl within those limits.

Auckland fishermen consider that the application will not be granted by the Bureau of Industry. The industry here is already seriously handicapped on the Sydney market by the operations of a trawler owned by the company which fishes off the New Zealand coast outside the three-mile limit, and to grant the application would intensify the marketing difficulties which a special committee set up by the Government in Auckland has been attempting to ,so!ve. The opinion was expressed that the Australian company is endeavouring by the threat of intensified competition to force down the price of New Zealand fish on the Australian market. 'Naturally there would be a big advantage to the Australian company if it could fish within the three-mile limit. At present its trawler appears to be operating mostly off the Westland coast, although there have been reports that it has been 6een off Onehunga.