The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1936. Assistance For Stewart Island

Southland Times, Issue 22998, 18 September 1936, Page 6

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1936. Assistance For Stewart Island

A short time ago a member of the Southland League referred to Stewart Island as “the isle of forgotten people.” If the position on the Island is as grave as was set out in the letter sent by the Stewart Island County Council to the Prime Minister and in the letter from Mr Robert Hicks published in The Southland Times yesterday there is ample justification for the description. There are some residents on the Island who derive the bulk of their income from the tourist industry but Mr Hicks probably did not exaggerate when he stated that 90 per cent, of the people depend on fishing for their living. Several factors in the past .season have prevented fishermen from earning the money they could reasonably expect from their hazardous calling. The weather for the last three months has been most unfavourable for fishing, and the beds which are within easy reach of the small craft owned by most of the fishermen have yielded poor returns. They have not been able to buy larger craft or modern craft with a more economical fuel consumption but have had to do the best they could with the boats available. And that best has, through force of circumstances, been very poor. These facts are widely known: they do not need verification. Moreover, the fishing season at Stewart Island is definitely curtailed by the habits of the marketable fish, and for about five months in the year the men engaged in the industry must seek other sources of income. There is no reason to suppose that the County Council was exaggerating when it described their plight as desperate; and it is gratifying to learn from the statement of the Minister of Employment printed this morning that as a result of the representations of Mr James Hargest, M.P., the Government has agreed to give the fishermen some relief. Apparently the reluctance of the Minister to accede to the requests for assistance was due to his fear of establishing the dangerous precedent of subsidising a competitive occupation. But, as Mr Hargest pointed out, the case of the Stewart Island fishermen was not parallel with that of ordinary tradesmen or industrialists. They can work for only a restricted season, as do the men engaged in the freezing industry; and there is nothing unreasonable in their request for relief work or sustenance grants during the off season. Exactly what form the Government’s assistance will take has not yet been determined. The Stewart Island County Council is anxious to see a road constructed from Oban to Mason’s Bay. The Minister of Public Works states that the resident Public Works engineer “who knows the country well” estimates the cost of the road at £20,000. Since the engineer on his own admission has not inspected the proposed route the estimate must be only a rough one. If, however, it is approximately correct, the road is going to involve a cost which may well be incommensurate with the benefits resulting from its construction. But if the Government’s responsibility to the impoverished fishermen were going to cost some thousands of pounds in expenditure on relief there might be justification for making a start on the Mason’s Bay road, costly though the project is. According to figures quoted by Mr Hargest to the Minister of Employment the average weekly earnings of the fishermen at the Island over a period of six years was only a trifle over 18 shillings. It seems inevitable that in the months when fish are not caught some form of subsidy will have to be given to the men each year to enable them to support their families. There is little prospect of weather conditions and prices improving so greatly in the future that in the months when they are engaged in the fishing industry they will earn sufficient to keep them for the whole year. If Government help is to be given it might be wiser to pay the men for constructing the road to Mason’s Bay than to give them sustenance or other work of little productive value. One thing is certain. The people of Stewart Island should not be callously left to their fate. They are entitled to expect sympathy and help from the rest of the Dominion, of which they are part and parcel. It is no use saying that the Island fishermen should cross to the mainland in the off season and seek work. In the first place they would probably find work very hard to get; in the second place they are born and bred to the sea and would find it difficult to adapt themselves to other tasks. If there are any people in the Dominion who resent the action of the Government in granting assistance to the fishermen of Stewart Island they must either be ignorant of the true facts or must be lacking in human feeling.