New policy in draft form

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 12

New policy in draft form

As far as was known only about three runholders out of about 500 were engaged in safari hunting enterprises, the Director-General of Lands, Mr R. J. MacLachlan, said this week. But he said that a new policy prepared by the Land Settement Board, but still in draft form, would cover the position of runholders wishing to undertake such enterprises. Such lessees would be required to exchange their pastoral leases for a special lease. This would give the runholder the right to run a safari-type enterprise on the land but he would still have all the responsibilities of a pastoral lease. It would cover only land in the pastoral lease and would exclude class 8 and 7E country, which was subject to or prone to erosion. The runholder would

still be required to keep noxious animals down and if he was running a safari enterprise in such a way that it w'as suspected he was allowing noxious animals to build up or he was farming them — the board could receive this information in a number of ways —then it would, if necessary, ask the runholder to reduce the numbers, and in the event of him failing to do so the Forest Service would be asked to do that.

This policy had been discussed with the High Country Committee of Federated Farmers and would also be discussed with the Federated Mountain Clubs and the deerstalkers before being produced in its final form. Mr MacLachlan said that in the past some land that had been retired from grazing had been put out under pastoral occupation licence.