The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1943 A SHELLFISH ATTITUDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 21, 5 November 1943, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1943 A SHELLFISH ATTITUDE

MAORIS who have been in the habit of helping themselves from the pipi-beds of the Whakatane harbour, have expressed the deepest concern at the recent declaration by the Health Department that the shellfish are an open danger to the general public owing to river contamination, and therefore their taking should be banned. The whole position bristles with difficulties and is highly controversial owing to the Maoris habit from time immemorial of regarding these particular pipis which are much more tender and tastier than the sea pipi, as a stable food which is theirs by ancestral right. The subject presents one of those delicate situations which calls for the utmost diplomacy. Every Pakeha knows the Maoris tenacity when his rights are infringed upon, as well as his partiality foi the shellfish concerned. The point that will invariably be raised will be the cause of the contamination which very obviously points back to the action of the Pakeha in using the rivei as a convenient dumping ground for drainage, sewerage, and waste matter of all descriptions; the result of which is the deprivation of the Maoris of yet another of what they feel is theirs by prior right of claim and heritage. How are we: going to answer that and at the same time protect the Maoris from the contagion of a deadly disease? Surely we owe them, and ourselves the rudimentary decency of keeping the river clean—and surely without bringing undue inconvenience to anyone, we can insist upon reasonable protection and elementary hygiene which would leave the waters unsullied and allow the extensive beds of edible shellfish to remain healthy and available for human consumption. Perhaps Whakatane residents fail to appreciate the fact that the same river water is used for household consumption throughout the Borough and although the intake is well above the tidal rise and fall and the water is filtered before reticulated to the consumer, there is still nothing to prevent careless and thoughtless persons living on the banks of the stream from using the waters as a veritable sludge channel. In our own interests therefore the fullest protection of the Whakatane river waters should be insisted upon, and if carried out to the letter there would be no reason to complain of the startling discovery of shellfish poisoned as a result of human laxity and neglect-