NO MONEY FOR MONTHS

Southland Times, Issue 23001, 22 September 1936, Page 6

NO MONEY FOR MONTHS

Stewart Island Fishermen

THE ART OF LIVING ON CREDIT MEN IN URGENT NEED OF WORK (From Our Special Reporter.) Half Moon Bay, September 21. Fifty-three fishermen of Stewart Island will earn their first penny for more than two months this week when they begin relief work under the No. 5 scheme. For the last six years fishing on the island has not been a remunerative job—so much so that on a basis of returns from fish exported each fisherman has over that period earned an average of 18/9 a week—and the end of the 1936 season has been so bad as to be the last straw.

Statements from the fishermen themselves checked with export records and by other residents, disclose the full extent of the plight of the 80 odd men engaged in fishing from the island. Many of them have not wet a line for | fish for more than two months—because | of worse weather than for many seasons past—and only now has the Government decided that the fishermen on the island are fit subjects for relief work. As it is, the statement from the Minister of Employment, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, authorized the granting of work under the No. 5 scheme only to those in urgent need of assistance. How widespread that urgent need is can be gathered from the action of the local certifying officer in listing almost all of the fishermen in Half Moon Bay itself as in urgent need. There is a feeling on the island that the Ministerial promise of relief did not envisage that such a big number of men would require to take advantage of relief, and that there might be “questions asked” about the urgency of cases. The islanders are ready and waiting for such questions, and from the stories told a reporter on Saturday and Sunday, their claims that relief work should have been granted in bad seasons years ago was a just one. “No One Would Starve.” It is true 'that living conditions on Stewart Island are not comparable with those on the mainland, and, as several at Half Moon Bay stated, no one on Stewart Island would starve. But even if starvation were avoided, the fishermen claimed, it was an impossible situation. Their food was obtained on credit from tire local storekeepers, and accounts were reaching huge proportions. So big were they that it was feared that the men would never- be able to make up their lost ground and that their future earnings next fishing season will go to wipe off back debts — and if the season were like the present one, that might well be impossible. But apart from food and the most necessary of clothing the men had nothing and could buy nothing. A notice on the storekeeper’s counter read, “No Smokes Booked” and it was a fact that for weeks on end the men had been unable to buy any tobacco. Those with homes on the island could not even entertain hopes of leaving the island to go to the mainland to look for work. They had their stake in the place, and what was more had no money with which to leave it. Single men were in the same position. They had food to eat but nothing in their pockets and even the weekly picture show has often had to be neglected because there was no money with which to go. In the days before the depression there were sawmills and some Government works to absorb fishermen when the seasons were bad, and even then prices for fish were better. Now there is nothing for the fishermen to do but fish, and when the weather is too bad for that there is no money to be earned anywhere.

Public Works Wanted.

The relief work that the men on the island will begin this week will be on county roads, but there is a general feeling on the island that some big public works job should be undertaken to find work for the men from now until February, when the next fishing season will begin. Tire men do not want sustenance, but work, and when there is fishing to be done they would sooner fish than earn a bare living on any relief works. But this season the fishing has been retarded to an exceptional extent by the weather, and until last week the official claim that fishing was a “full-time job” and a “competitive industry” had precluded any relief being given the men. “Stewart Island should have some share of the £8,000,000 Mr Semple is going to spend on public works,” is a typical comment on the island.

There is a strong opinion on the island that the Government would be well advised to go ahead with the construction of the road—about 23 miles in length—between Half Moon Bay and Mason’s Bay. Apart altogether from the work such a job would provide over a long period, with most of the work to be done in the five months each, year in which there is no fishing, it is claimed that such a road to divide the island would add immeasurably to its attractions for tourists and in addition would open up good tracts of grazing country and provide access to farms, forests of timber awaiting milling and a valuable area of flax land.

Other suggested public works on the island include the building of an aerodrome at Paterson Inlet, which would also mean the building of the Mason’s Bay road as far as the inlet to give access to the aerodrome, the building of a combined small hydro-electric and auxiliary Diesel energy electricity supply plant, and the construction of more tennis courts and bowling greens and croquet lawns.

Families Leave Island.

These suggestions of possible avenues for employment will be discussed in a further article. The main purpose of the islanders at the moment is to prove that such employment is vitally necessary if the fishermen are to live. Already in the last two or three years a few families of residents have left Stewart Island for the mainland because of (he difficulty of making a living, and others might go now if they had the money. The economic independence of the third and smallest island of New Zealand is a matter of vital importance. The fishing industry in normal times provides work for from 80 to 90 fishermen on Stewart Island, and it may be good again. All that is needed by the men engaged in it is an assurance that if the weather is completely against their calling in any one season, they shall be given the opportunity of making a living in some other way.

Ministerial Visits.

The term “the island of forgotten men” has been applied to Stewart Island by some of its residents. There is a very real feeling that the island is neglected. Some years ago it received its last Ministerial visit from the Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle, who as member

for a neighbouring constituency had a close connection with the island. The only other visit that can be remembered was in pre-war days when a Minister of Marine, the Hon. Mr Anderson, was a visitor. Invitations have been extended to present Ministers to visit Stewart Island, but none has so far responded, or made any arrangements to come.

Visits from officials of the Tourist Department are as rare as those from Ministers, and the people of the island feel that it is neglected from a tourist viewpoint, receiving only a few visits from isolated overseas visitors who have come there on their own wish and not because the Tourist Department recommended the trip. Engineers of the Public Works Department, too, seldom come to inspect the island’s requirements, and it is felt that there is a definite need for a public works overseer for works on the island. Poverty Not Paraded.

The men of the island do not parade their poverty, and it was a difficult task to find details of the position from them. The impression was everywhere gathered that assistance was urgently needed. Mainland residents can only with difficulty imagine some of the consequences of poverty on an isolated island. For instance, the birth of a child to a fishing family at the present time is a grave matter, and although friends and relatives will assist with clothes and other necessaries needed, and there is a district nurse, parents who have not had a penny come into the house for months at a time have a far more serious worry than relief workers in a city would have. The community spirit engendered by the isolation of Stewart Island is an asset far greater than money. Everyone helps those in need. But the whole community has never been so short of money as it is now. Any relief that a Government can give is urgently needed and has been for months.