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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 7 (December 1, 1932)

The Toheroa's Domain

The Toheroa's Domain.

It was amusing to read in recent cable messages from Sydney the motorists' criticism of the toheroa shellfish tribe's interference with the speeding-up condition of the so-called Ninety-Mile Beach—which is really only fifty miles. After all, it must be conceded that the toheroa community was there first. And, really, if we could only enter into the toheroa's point of view, we could perceive the poetic justice of it all. The fact is that the great beach is an excellent motoring highway so long as one is content to travel at a moderate rate—say up to fifty miles an hour, quite reasonable for those limitless places where Nature made the thoroughfare.

For Mr. and Mrs. Toheroa and all the little 'uns, it can be claimed that they are a distinct asset to the country. According to the last official return, a total of 6532 cases of toheroa were packed for the market in a year, representing a value of £12,442. Most of this quantity came from the Ninety (Fifty) Mile Beach. There is something to be said, therefore, for a Ngati-Toheroa plea to be allowed a choice to live for the market and the interests of the Dominion and the Empire as a whole, and saved from the rubber-shod heel of that tyrant of our age, the speedster's motor car.