Group to fight move for national park

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 9

Group to fight move for national park

PA Wellington The pro-development group, Federated Futures, will fight the National Parks and Reserves Authority’s recommendation to create a national park at Punakaiki. Thirty thousand hectares on the West Coast, including the Pancake rocks, would be included in the park. "There is going to be a battle here,” said the executive director of Federated Futures, Mr John Huston, said from Greymouth yesterday. Anticipating the recommendation, Federated Futures had discussed the matter with legal advisers to determine whether the auth-

ority’s decision had legal status. It had made a recommendation without taking notice of the regional scheme and the legality of this was questioned, he said. The advantages of establishing a park at Punakaiki had not been clearly demonstrated, Mr Huston said. A national park would affect those involved in mining in the Paparoa area and the future of the Tauranga Bay sawmill. “We have been and are still looking seriously at the matter of compensation. If the national park created is of national importance, the nation can pay for it,” Mr Huston said.