Molesworth Road Policy

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31771, 30 August 1968, Page 15

Molesworth Road Policy

The Minister of Lands (Mr Maclntyre) had set up a special committee to investigate the future of Molesworth Station and one of the points to be considered was access, said the Direc-tor-General of Lands (Mr R. J. Mac Lachlan) in a letter to the Canterbury Progress League.

Although his department did not have full control over the Molesworth road, it had opposed its being opened for the public, said Mr MacLachlan.

Unauthorised people had interfered with stock. If the road was opened it was feared there would be an increasing number of shooting and trespassing offences which on a property the size of Molesworth would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to police.

At the present, great concern was given by these offences, especially unauthorised spotlight shooting. It was also considered inevitable that vandalism would increase. Major targets would be gates, fences and station buildings.

Fire danger would increase and grazing which had taken years to develop and regenerate from bare ground could be destroyed by a carelessly tossed cigarette or sparks from an undoused camp fire. Mr MacLachlan said there was also a danger to users of the road in isolated country

with high passes and a risk of dangerous weather with snow and ice at any time of the year. Mr J. Manson described the letter as tripe.

The road to the Molesworth was in effect public, with the exception of one bridge, which belonged to the Electricity Department Mr Manson said he knew a runholder on a similar back country area who had never had fires lit on his property and his stock had not been shot at Dr I. D. Blair said the league should have good, valid reasons before it supported opening the road to the public. The Government had half a million acres of land there which was an altogether different situation from that in other back-country leasehold lands.

He said that he had a friend on another back country run who bad found it unsafe to put his head round his property, when gun-happy people roamed over it There was no population at Molesworth to supervise the shooting types. If they were allowed over Molesworth it would be a rodeo.

The president (Mr P. F. Maples) said the league would have to be careful before supporting the opening of the road in preference to the present limited access.