LINE TRIGGER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 690, 28 May 1903, Page 6

LINE TRIGGER

(By

“Gillie.”)

I have more than once urged the taking over of the control of the fisheries 1 of the Commonwealth by the Federal Government, arid the suggestion has just received a substantial fillip (writes “ The Fisherman There ia trouble between Victoria and Tasmania —interstate trouble for which Commonwealth placation isi needed. It is a serious business too. Lhe Tasmanian Fisheries Commissioners have control of the islands and the water surrounding them in the Bass Strait right up to the Victorian three-mile radius of the coast. The commissioners have decided that fishing boats must not use nets longer than so fathoms or deeper than 15ft., and the . use of crayfish pots shall be stopped. Heavy penalties, involving forfeiture of nets, boats, etc., as well as fines being arranged for. The natters who take their (fish to the Victorian markets have been in the habit of ■ring nets. 200 to 250 fathoms long and •Bft. deep. Evidently these are immense meshing nets, and they do a wonderful amount of damage amongst fish shoal’s and feeding grounds. There are about 20 Victorian boats of from 90 to 150 tons engaged in fishing in the strait. Two of these are steamboats, and six use oil’ engine® as auxiliaries to their sailing. About 100 men are directly concerned, but their work gives partial employment to many others. The Commonwealth Government is being memorialised by the Victorian netters, and asked to intervere In order to safeguard the local supplies.

There is a rock at the Hawkesbury which several of the local fishermen regard with awe. It is styled the Vision Rook. From what I can (gather, of the story (says a Sydney writer), it is that a young lady was drowned under peculiar-

ly distressing circumstances not far from, it, and that her wraith ha® been observed near it on many occasions. One hesitates to dismiss these stories without thought. There is generally something at the back of them. It is quite within the bounds of reason that an imaginative person has pictured something from the spirit world about the place, but it by no means follows that anyone else could see i) at the lows that anyone else could see it at the same time.

D’ ye ken John Peel ? His youngest daughter died this week (says the Daily Express ” of March 14), and was buried in Caldbeck Churchyard,, where her father the great huntsman, lies buried. This daughter was Mrs- Hudson, Park End Caldbeck, and she was eighty years of age. *

The life of a diver is sufficiently exciting at all times, but (according to the Sydney writer, “ Glaucus,”) one man? who* has been engaged in submarine operations down Bellambi way, along the Illawarra Coast, has had a lot of excitement lately crowded into his existence. Although his experiences have been worldwide, he has not found sharks very plucky until lately. A shark pestered him in his operations, and although he lunged at) it several times it betrayed a desire to sample his diving clothes, and he left it with malice in his mind. When he was hauled up he promptly arranged for a bait to be dropped for the disturber of his work. The shark took the bait, left the water, and had the life bludgeoned out on deck. Then the diver went dawn again, and found to his consternation that a relative of the despatched one had come to reconnoitre. This one, too, was savage, so the line and baited hook dealt out destruction to it. Work was not resumed for some time, but when it was the diver descended and found another bluepointer cruising round the spot. This one was particularly savage, and took little notice of several prods dealt at it by the diver. The diver found it necessary to leave his work in a greater hurry than before, the shark following him to the surface. The hook and line again got to work, and No. 3 joined his finny relatives on deck. There must have been some ■special attraction—odour probably—about the place.