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and environment. It is just a matter of
trying to chip away at this concept until
it means nothing, and I urge you to sup-
port this amendment and give meaning to
this reform that the Local Government
Committee has been trying to write in this
Constitution.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Malkus, do
you desire to speak in opposition?
DELEGATE MALKUS: Mr. President
and members of the Convention, I would
like to say, and I think my record will
bear it out, that I have always advocated
wherever possible the uniformity of laws
throughout the State of Maryland. But I
would like to say that in the field of nat-
ural resources there are areas where you
cannot have general law. Before I get into
that, I would make a response to the
gentleman from St. Mary's County who
quotes the Wye Institute report. What the
gentleman did not say is that the oyster
industry in Maryland is on the upgrade to
such an extent now, Mr. President, that
they have to restrict the number of catch-
ing days because they cannot find sufficient
help to shuck -the oysters. That is a mile-
stone in Maryland and the credit belongs
to Governor Tawes for having given the
State a fine program. You can have all
the laws you want, but it is the adminis-
tration of the laws that count.
Now, Delegate Fox talks about admin-
istrative agencies. He is absolutely right.
I would like to say, too, sir, that we did
this in the field of hunting deer. I was in
favor of that, and I think it has worked
out very well. However, there are some
areas, Mr. President, 'where we do not
want an administrative agency such as the
Department of Tidewater Affairs to have
complete say.
I want to tell you a little story. Some
fifteen years ago the catching of the
Ipswich clam or the soft shell crab in
Maryland was unknown. Something hap-
pened in New England and it was found
that we had a market for these clams and
they started catching these clams.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Malkus
has one-half minute of three minutes left.
DELEGATE MALKUS: Mr. President,
the catching of clams is a very detrimental
thing. It affects the oyster industry. It af-
fects the crabbing industry. It affects the
fishing industry and it affects, I want you
city people to hear this, the valuation of
river front property. The reason for that
is this. They take them by mechanical and
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hydraulic dredges, and they make an awful
lot of noise at 4 o'clock in the morning. So
you start taking these clams, my phone
starts jumping off the hook by the people
who live around the Choptank River ask-
ing me to do something to stop the noise.
We have to allow the taking of these
clams in certain areas. We have to find out
which area they can be taken from so that
they do not hurt the fish, do not hurt the
crabs, do not affect the ducking and do not
affect the homeowner. It can only be done
by area. It cannot be done by general law.
Now, in conclusion, you have been kind,
if we turn this over like, Mr. Fox would
say, to the administrative agency, the De-
partment of Chesapeake Bay Affairs, what
is their concern? Their concern is to show
the catching of an awful lot of clams. They
do not care about the homeowners, espe-
cially the people from the city.
In the legislature we must take into con-
sideration those people. For those reasons
the General Assembly has done well in
legislating on a statewide level. Leaving
this in here will allow the legislature to
continue to do the good job that it has.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Needle.
DELEGATE NEEDLE: Mr. Chairman,
I will be very brief and in order to obviate
the necessity of my rising twice, I mean
this to apply to the following amendment.
One of the purposes of this Local Gov-
ernment Committee and this Convention
was to limit the ability of the General As-
sembly to enact local legislation and to
emphasize that we have stated it in the
negative in section 3.23 in this article. We
have written therefore an absolute pro-
hibition against local legislation with cer-
tain exceptions.
The Local Government Committee con-
sidered the problems of natural resources
and education and at the specific requests
of representatives of those interests we
provided an enabling provision in the
Local Government Article which would per-
mit the General Assembly, which would
permit a county or any number of counties
to enact laws which the other counties
might not have the ability to enact. This
provision was written in specifically for
that and other purposes. Now we find they
want an absolute prohibition, or exception
rather, in the Constitution permitting the
General Assembly to enact local legisla-
tion in those areas. They want their cake
and eat it too.
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