FISHING REGULATION

Southland Times, Issue 21822, 27 September 1932, Page 5

FISHING REGULATION

AMENDMENT NOT ENFORCED. SIZE OF SEINE NETS. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 26. The recently gazetted regulation concerning the size of mesh of seine nets which concerned fishermen in all parts of New Zealand will not be enforced for at least a year and possibly not then, a decision on the matter being reached this morning after the fishermen’s side of the question had been placed before the Minister of Marine (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) and the Chief Inspector of Fisheries, Mr A. E. Hefford, by Mr James Hargest (InverC& Mr Hargest explained that the fishermen of Southland, along with those in other parts of the Dominion, were being placed in a very awkward position by the proposed alteration and that the merchants .who supplied nets would also be called upon to bear considerable losses because they had stocks of nets with 2Jin mesh on hand and if the regulation requiring nets with 4in mesh was enforced these stocks would be a dead loss. Many fishermen were in poor circumstances and could not afford to buy new nets and the regulation would force them to seek reljef labour while others had bought nets on time-payment and would never be able to pay for them if they could not fish with them. The fishermen did not agree that a larger mesh would allow small fish to pass through and escape unharmed. Mr Hargest added that they claimed that the fish would be gilleted in the larger mesh and killed and consequently it would be useless to return them to the water. In addition, they claimed that larger mesh would make fishing in weedy bays almost impossible because with a 2<in mesh weeds were caught and could be tipped out on shore, but with a 4in mesh they would thread through the nets and havq to be picked out by hand. In view of the representations made, the Minister agreed to postpone the proposed regulation for a year, and it is possible that the whole question will receive further careful consideration.