Access to game ‘in danger’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 3

Access to game ‘in danger’

(New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH,. March 23. New Zealanders were in danger of losing their traditional freedom of access to fish and game, the M.P. for Palmerston North (Mr J. A. Walding) said at a Rotary luncheon today.

This cherished New Zealand tradition was being whittled away, Mr Walding said. “Commercial enterprises which are being developed now present a greater danger to our traditional rights than either pollution or more stringent trespass laws,” he said. “Over the last two years we have seen the development of commercial schemes which threaten to tum our best hunting and fishing grounds into the sole preserve of the wealthy. We have schemes whereby thousands of acres of our best hunting and fishing will be available only to those who are prepared to pay up to $B5 or $lOO a day. “For example, there is Tokaro Lodge, set in 2500 acres of the Eglington Valley, near Te Anau. This was originally Crown land, part of a block of 35,000 acres which was valued in 1967 at $5O an acre. The land was sold to an American millionaire for

$lB an acre, and the charges there are $B5 a day. “Another is El Rancho Poronui, which consists of 20,000 acres of former Maori land near Taupo. This ranch is exclusively for the use of Americans, and the owner has an outrider whose job is to patrol the ranch looking for trespassers. Because of the geographical position of the land thousands of acres lying behind Poronui were now inaccessible.

If such schemes were allowed to develop unrestricted it would not be long before all New Zealand trout streams and the best hunting and fishing in the country would be inaccessible unless substantial payments • were made to property owners. New Zealand was the envy of the world because nowhere else could ordinary people enjoy such beauty and variety in their environment. It was a priceless asset that was valued too little by New Zealanders.