American Firm Buys Tasman Bay Land

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 36

American Firm Buys Tasman Bay Land

(New Zealand Press Association)

NELSON, July 12.

An American interest has bought at least 1200 acres of private land on the coastline beside Abel Tasman National Park, and another 900 acres on the West Coast at Paturau. This was confirmed today by the landowners involved.

The purchaser is the Robert H. Hunter Syndicate, a real estate firm of Seattle, Washington.

which yould average between $6O and $65 an acre. This sum, he said, was two and a half times more than the offer that the Cabinet approved for the land. This would make the Crown bid about $25 an acre. The Crown was given until last Friday to match the American offer. When no further bid was maoe on behalf of the Abel Tasman National Park Board, the deal was closed.

roa Inlet area said that recent private sales of smaller parcels of land there had been made at prices considerably higher than $6O an acre. One block of 10 acres changed hands recently for $2500, and another area of 80 acres nearby sold for $9OOO. Mr A. Robinson, of Wellington, who owns land at Awaroa and -has a small air strip there, said that if the park authorities wanted to buy these properties they should be prepared to open them up for public use. “My concern,” he said, “is that the park board should buy land only to lock it up so that the public can't get at it.”

The land on the Tasman Bay coastline involved three private holdings fronting the Tonga roadstead and the Awaroa inlet. One block of more than 800 acres was owned by Miss R. Z. R. Richardson, of Nelson; an adjoining block of 278 acres has been sold by Mr G. D. Rowling, of Riwaka, and the third, “Cave Hill” block of 130 on the northern side of Awaroa Inlet, has been sold by Mr B. A. Redfearn, of Nelson. The Paturau property, south of Westhaven on the West Coast, with access from Golden Bay, is a 900-acre block sold to the Hunter Syndicate by Messrs W. C. and V. W. Win, of Mangarakau and Rockville. The price paid for this land has not been disclosed. The sales were conducted by a Motueka land agent, Mr E. D. D. Baas. $6O An Acre The Minister of Lands and Forests (Mr Maclntyre) said today that the three blocks at Tonga and Awaroa had changed hands for $BO,OOO,

Since the park was acquired in 1942, its area had been extended from 37,622 acres to 45,134 acres. In the last three years 801 acres, in three properties, had been bought and added to the park.

Two landowners in the Awa-