WHITEBAIT FISHING RIGHTS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3663, 9 July 1927, Page 3

WHITEBAIT FISHING RIGHTS

MAORIS PETITION PARLIAMENT.

A petition from the Kaiapoi Maoris living at Tuahiwi, Canterbury, presented to the House on Thursday by Mr. Tau Henarc, asked that the use of set nets for catching whitebait in the Ashley River should be made illegal. The petition sets out that when the Maoris in 1848 sold Canterbury, certain reserves were set aside as fishing easements for the use of the Kaiapoi natives. The reserve on the Ashley was behind the lands occupied by Europeans who used set nets which trapped the whitebait travelling up the river and so the Maoris were deprived of their “national food,” whitebait having been “recognised from time immemorial to be one of the main diets of the Maori race.” The petition alleged that Maoris going on European lands in search of whitebait were classed as trespassers and prosecuted. If everyone were compelled to use the ordinary drag net as in other rivers of New Zealand, then both Maoris and Europeans would get their share. The petition, which was signed by 38 Maoris, said they were gradually losing their fishing easements through drainage by Europeans and were “gradually being pushed back from the river, owing to the commercial value of whitebait.”