Deerstalkers "did not accept offers ”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32659, 15 July 1971, Page 3

Deerstalkers "did not accept offers ”

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 14. The Deerstalkers’ Association and its president (Mr J. B. Henderson) had twice been invited by the Minister of Lands and Forests (Mr Maclntyre) to discuss their complaints and the situation generally with the Land Settlement Board, but had not accepted either offer, said the Minister today.

Mr Maclntyre replied to complaints made by Mr Henderson in his recent address at the association’s conference at Ashburton. “At a meeting early last year I invited the association to provide me with details of any specific access problems, so that I could see what I could do to improve this. So far, only three have been presented and it was only last Thursday, on meeting the Ashburton branch of the Deerstalkers’ Association, that they admitted they have a further 40, so I have asked why they had not brought them to me before,” said the Minister.

“In view of this apparent lack of interest in discussing their complaints, I should be interested to know one thing —why, if these points were considered so important, were they not raised at last week’s conference until the day after-t had left?

“This is not discussion, and it is certainly not even normal courtesy. Any unbiassed person might be forgiven for considering it pressure tactics—which are surely not needed if a case is sound,” Mr Maclntyre said. “I repeat my invitation to the association to meet the Land Settlement Board to discus's the complaints and criticisms. If they are not prepared to accept this invitation, then they may care to supply me with a copy of the address, so that I will at least know as much about their particular charges as the newspapers. /‘My departments are rightly proud of the service they give the public, and the facts are always available freely. I suggest it is time the association tested this statement by accepting my invitation to discuss any specific questions or situation they may wish to raise,” the Minister said. I