Page:Municipal Handbook of Auckland 1922.djvu/237



The Market is under the control of a Markets Comnittee, and is supervised by a manager. The premises, consisting of offices, smoke houses, chilling plant, storage trenches, net shed, carpenter's shop, cleaning shed, and general equipment, are situated off Customs Street West, attached to which is a wharf for trawlers and fishing boats to discharge their catches.

The Council has two steam trawlers, the Simplon and the Cowan. The Simplon, which was formerly a North Sea trawler, is a steel vessel of 184 gross tonnage. She is 109 feet long, and carries a crew of eleven hands. During the war period she did useful work mine-sweeping on the New Zealand coast, and has proved to be the right size for trawling in these waters, going as far afield as the North Cape and the west coast. The Cowan is built of ironbark, and has been converted into a trawler, her gross tonnage being 67 tons; length 83 feet. She carries a crew of 7 hands, and although of much smaller dimensions than the Simplon, her fishing reports compare more than favourably with any trawler in New Zealand.

In addition to the two trawlers, the Department buys from line and net men, and during last winter employed between 30 and 40 small boats to augment the supply of the trawlers. The demand for fish is steadily growing, but the operations of the City Council