TOHEROA BEACHES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 26, 28 December 1932, Page 2

TOHEROA BEACHES.

(To the Editor.!

Sir, —Tho article that appeared in your Saturday's issue on this subject will interest many of your readers, hut if will also surprise some of them when they read that this year, if they take tolieroas, they will be guilty of an offence under tho law. I am sure very few people know that, and it seems to me that it should be made more public, otherwise a number of holiday makers will find themselves in trouble. I would suggest that public notices should be put up on the beaches by the department Then people would know their position. I have had occasion recently to visit the Waitarere Beach, near Levin (which has been known from time immemorial as a toheroa bed), where a. township has lately sprung into existence, and I have nearly always found people digging for toheroas —sometimes Natives, but quite often visitors. One man told me that people from up the coast as far as Wanganui and from Hawke’s Bay came regularly and each took away enough tolieroas to make soup for a week. I came across no one who knew that it is a criminal offence to take away these shellfish. The damage that niay be done at a beach such as the one I have mentioned will be realised when I repeat what was told me on the ground, namely, that one holiday quite recently here, there were three thousand people on the Waitarere Beach, mostly bathing in the surf and playing games, but a largo proportion of whom were hunting for tolieroas. It was quite different before this beach was thrown open to the public bringing it within a few minutes of the main highway by a metal road. Previous to this only Maoris and a very few travellers troubled the tolieroas. Now it is everyone’s sport, and it is impossible for any private person to interfere. It is the business of the police or the Fisheries Department. If this department thinks it is worth while saving the tolieroas in a place like Waitarere, immediate steps should lie taken, because, judging by present appearances, as may be seen any holiday at Waitarere Bench, there will soon be precious few tolieroas Left. I question if tire toheroas can be saved on a beach like Waitarere, which will apparently soon be a crowded seaside resort, a sad falling ofF from what it was in the good old days when, with fine spanking horses we were wont to scamper through the sparkling surf.— I am, etc., OLD TIMER.