Appendix I - Information

The following sections quoted from the Local Government Act 2002 (s650C – 65OF) outline the powers of harbourmasters and enforcement officers.

650B. Appointment of harbourmasters, enforcement officers, and honorary officers

1. A regional council may appoint such harbourmasters and enforcement officers (including honorary enforcement officers) as it thinks necessary for the purposes of this Part.
2. An honorary enforcement officer of a council has only such powers of enforcement officers under this Part as the council specifies in the instrument appointing the person to be an honorary enforcement officer.
3. Harbourmasters appointed under subsection (1) must have such qualifications as may be required by maritime rules.

650C General powers of harbourmasters and enforcement officers

1. A harbourmaster or enforcement officer of a regional council may at any time, for the purposes of carrying out his or her duty, enter and remain on any ship in waters within the council’s region.


2. A harbourmaster or an enforcement officer (together with such assistants and equipment as are considered necessary) may enter and remain on any maritime facility, or on any land or property of a port company or other operator of a port facility, within the region of the council that appointed the harbourmaster for the purposes of carrying out his or her functions.



3. For the purpose of ensuring navigation safety, a harbourmaster or enforcement officer may give directions regulating:


1. the time and manner in which any ship may enter into, depart from, lie, or navigate in those waters;
2. the position, mooring, unmooring, placing, removing, securing, or unsecuring of any ship within those waters;
3. the manner in which any ship within those waters, or at any maritime facility, may take in or discharge its cargo or any part of its cargo, and the manner in which cargo is secured or is being handled on a ship where there is a risk of cargo failing overboard and becoming a hazard to navigation.

650D Harbourmaster may remove ships

1. For the purposes of ensuring navigation safety or enforcing navigation bylaws, a harbourmaster of a regional council may:
1. direct the master of any ship in waters within the region of the council, or lying at any maritime facility, to moor, unmoor, anchor, weigh anchor, secure, unsecure, place, or move his or her ship; and
2. cause the ship to be moored or unmoored or to be anchored or to weigh anchor or to be secured or unsecured or to be placed or removed according to the harbourmaster’s directions, and employ a sufficient number of persons for the purpose.


2. A harbourmaster of a regional council may, in relation to any floating, submerged, or stranded object (other than one to which section 650K applies) that the harbourmaster considers is a hazard to navigation, do or cause to be done anything referred to in subsection (1)(b) (as if the object were a ship).


3. The expenses incurred by a harbourmaster under subsection (1) or subsection (2) are payable by the master and the owner of the ship, or by the owner of the object (as the case may be), and are recoverable as a debt due to the council.

650E Harbourmasters and others may regulate some navigation activities

1. A harbourmaster of a regional council may, in the interests of navigation safety, do all or any of the following things in relation to any waters within the council’s region:
1. require the person appearing to be in charge of any ship or seaplane to stop, and to give his or her name and address, on being requested to do so by the harbourmaster
2. require person found committing an offence against the council’s navigation bylaws to give his or her name and address
3. on informing the owner of a ship or seaplane of an alleged offence against the council’s navigation bylaws, and on requesting the owner to do so, require the owner to give all information in the owner’s possession or obtainable by the owner which may lead to the identification of the person by whom the offence is alleged to have been committed
4. regulate and control the traffic and navigation, and provide specially for the direct and personal control of that traffic, on any day or occasion of unusual or extraordinary traffic.


2. A person authorised by the council, or any member of the police acting on the request of the harbourmaster or such an authorised person, who:
1. has received a complaint that there has been a breach of any of the council’s navigation bylaws; and
2. on investigation of the complaint, is of the opinion that there has been a breach of the council’s navigation bylaws,- may exercise any power under subsection (1)(a) to (c).


3. If a harbourmaster or enforcement officer of a regional council believes on reasonable grounds that a person has committed a breach of maritime rules involving navigation safety, the harbourmaster or enforcement officer may exercise any power under subsection (1)(a) to (c), and those provisions apply with any necessary modifications.


4. No honorary enforcement officer may exercise any power under section (1) (c) or (d).

65OF Application of section 710 and other requirements
(Section 710 was repealed, as from 1 July 2003, by s 266 Local Government Act 2002 (2002 No 84) and replaced with Section 174 of the Local Government Act 2002)

1. Section 174 applies in respect of every harbourmaster, enforcement officer and honorary enforcement officer.


2. In addition to complying with section 174, before entering a place in the exercise of any power under any of sections 650C to 650E, a harbourmaster, enforcement officer, or honorary enforcement officer must produce the person’s written warrant under section 174 to any person appearing to be in charge of the place entered:


1. on entering the place (if such a person is then present); and
2. at any reasonable time thereafter, if asked to do so by the person.


3. If there is no person appearing to be in charge of the place at any time between the time of entry and the time the harbourmaster, enforcement officer, or honorary enforcement officer leaves the place, the harbourmaster or officer must, as soon as is practicable upon leaving the place, give an occupier or person in charge of the place written notice stating that the place has been entered, and specifying the following matters:
1. the time and date of entry
2. the circumstances and purpose of entry
3. the name, office or position, and employer of every person entering
4. everything that has been seized, or that nothing has been seized, and every action taken, or that no action has been taken.


4. This section applies to a member of the police who exercises any power under section 650E as if his or her warrant card or other evidence of appointment were a warrant under section 174.