WHITEBAIT TRAPPED
FISH DEALER FINED £o OFFENCE VIEWED SERIOUSLY COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] BLENHEIM, Wednesday Fishing for whitebait at the mouth of the Wairau River with a set net cost William Marshall Merrigold a £o fine when ho was charged with the offence in the Magistrate's Court. The prosecution was conducted by the collector of customs, who stated that the trap was a cylindrical affair, with wings on each side, and effectually prevented whitebait from going upstream. The use of traps was prohibited in the district and the offence was looked on seriously by the Marine Department. The defendant had said that he had been experimenting with the trap for use on the West Coast, but that excuse was hardly reasonable because traps were prohibited on the West Coast also. If traps were used indiscriminately there would soon bo no whitebait. There had been three gallons of whitebait in the trap. Merrigold was a fish dealer. The magistrate said he must accede to the application for a severe penalty. The offence might have been undetected all the season, in which case the defendant would have made a substantial profit from an illegal practice.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19381110.2.137
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23191, 10 November 1938, Page 14
Word Count
196WHITEBAIT TRAPPED New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23191, 10 November 1938, Page 14
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the New Zealand Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries and NZME.