It seams if you ask you fellow gold hunters the cans and the cant's of what your allowed to do, in regards to panning , sluicing , dredging ect, you get the laws that suit there own needs and not facts , because they believe that if they get found on a claim , or in a non prospecting area that you can just play dumb and say that they had no idea that they have no right to be there , if fish n game or doc or the claim owners find them.
Now i no that there are plenty of folks on there that own a claim , or have built a relationship with claim owners , by either hunting them down and asking or by a chance encounter and by having knowledge of what they can do .....
Ive been lucky enuf to find a claim owner who , despite having poachers regularly trying to hide there activity, lets me and a few mates go do our thing as long as we call and ask and tell him the dates and we leave it as we found it taking our rubbish ect with us , and a box of tui for the man of course, we find enuf colour to keep interested and enjoy the time we have .
But there are some - that think if we hide n play dumb we will be ok .
As i have seen over the long weekend this is not true and it ment for a couple of guys that there dredges are most likely going to end up in a police auction.
As they had been warned by the claim owner 3 times in the last couple of months to leave and not return but instead they just pick better spots to hide.
well they had no place to hide when 4 cops turned up an gave them there rights as well as fines for no reg n wof, from what i understand they can take cars, trailers ,wetsuits gold gear ect as they are all part of the crime , kind of the same as what happens if you get caught poaching paua or crayfish ect.
So maybe to help out the folks that do not know, Paydirt should have the laws in a simple to read form in its own section at the top beside Forms-Permit Maps-Locations-Equipment ect just so people know how it is.
now im not saying that everyone is like these two, but given the fact that it happens so much we should all know what we can do to be able to enjoy our hobby , as we all get tar-ed with the same brush ,so to speak and it makes it hard for us to be taken seriously by claim holders if they just dont no if your genuine as some will just say No! to all because of pirates.
Remember Knowledge is everything so the more ya no the better off we will be.
Any thoughts ?????
i think the claim owner did the right thing ,as some members are silly if they think threats of violence is the way to fix this,
some folks just dont no
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