WHITEBAIT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 22

WHITEBAIT

TO THE EDITOE 'Ol THE . PBESS. , Sir, —At this time of the year, and with weather conditions as they are at present, we should be having a good run of whitebait in the Avon river. Having heard there was not much caught,’ I interviewed several fishermen, especially at Berry’s creek, at Burwood, and they all had the same complaint. That was that the- Drainage Board was doing its best to keep the whitebait out of the river. Now whitebaiting. lasts only abo’-it three months of the year. Surely .the board could do all its dredging in the nine months, and leave the whitebaiters alone while the season lasts? .. This year there are gangs of men cleaning out the main stream in the town. There is another big gang in Dudley creek; then there is another big gang in Marshland in the big creeks there, the dirty water of which comes out at Berry’s creek. These men are trying to make a few shillings, and it seems to me very unreasonable of the Drainage Board to act as it does, year after year. When I was in Wellington a few months ago I interviewed .Mr Hefford, chief of the Fisheries Department. He asked me what I thought of licensed nets. ‘I told him that would be quite satisfactory, as long as the Drainage Board would come to an arrangement to leave the river alone during the season; otherwise, it would not pay to get a licence. Now that is the whitebaiters’ argument. Several prominent citizens have been in the habit of taking a run out to Berry’s creek to get a feed of freshcaught whitebait, among them being that great believer in fruit, vegetables, and fresh fish. Dr. Thacker. Well, whitebait cannot be caught in dirty water, so these people will have to go short. I am not whitebaiting myself now, as my health will not allow it, but I have had about 40 years’ experience and I have fished in several rivers in New Zealand, and I have never had any trouble with drainage boards as we have in Christchurch. I should like Dr. Thacker to take this up, also. The general public do not ’.'oallse that the Avon is not affected, b-y the nor’-wester, and some years during the season we get continual nor’-westers, which mean that if the Avon is kept- clean 6? river silt and mud which is stirred up, Christchurch people will get a good supply of fresh fish, right at their- doors*—'Yours, etc., J. MOIR.

September 27, 1938. [“The Drainage Board is not ‘doing its best to keep whitebait out of the river,’ ” said Mr E. H. S. Hamilton (chaitman of the Drainage Board) when this letter was referred to him. While the board sympathises with the fishermen, it has a duty to the owners of the land. The cleaning of the river goes on all the year round, working from the' source down to the mouth, and it has been found from experience that the weeds in the lower reaches must be cut when growth starts in the spring, otherwise the drainage is affected. The work at Dudley creek and in Marshland has been going on for months to improve the land drainage in those areas, and .it was not started at a time coinciding, with the run of whitebait. Because of a very wet winter, it is of particular importance that the river, and the creeks leading to it, be made as efficient as possible.]