Debate on S.I. high country continues

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 30

Debate on S.I. high country continues

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington Debate on who owns the South Island high country is continuing to heat up as the time approaches for the restructuring of Government administration of land and conservation responsibilities. The latest row is over 597 ha of unoccupied Crown land on the Upper Ahuriri River, North Otago. The fate of this land has been considered by successive meetings of the Land Settlement Board held in committee and is on the agenda for the board’s next meeting on March 4 and 5. Federated. Mountain Clubs has described what is happening to this land as a last-ditch attempt by the doomed Lands and Survey Deptment to alienate outstanding public land. One of the options being considered by the Land Settlement Board, of which the department is agent, is that it be incorporated into the pastoral lease of the Birchwood run Immediately downvalley. The board has not yet made public the options it

is considering, and will discuss the matter again at its March meeting. Board members were well aware of the concerns of the DeputyDirector General of Lands, Mr George McMillan, who denied that his department would make the decision. The decision would be made by the board, he said. The land at issue, on the floor of the Ahuriri Valley, originally was State forest land controlled by the Forest Service. About 10 years ago it was detached from the surrounding forest and transferred to the department as a Crown land recreation area. Today, it is open grassland, grazed by stock from the neighbouring Birchwood run. This was criticised by

the vice-president of Federated Mountain Clubs, Mr David Henson. He said there was no legal basis for this use of the land, as it was not part of the lease and the runholder did not have any rights to graze It. He predicted that the department would tidy up this problem by recommending that the Land Settlement Board add the 597 ha to the Birchwood lease. The Land Settlement Board has been under attack from recreational lobby groups for years by taking “development” rather than “conservation” attitudes towards the South Island high country. The - Government has co-opted two outsiders to sit on the board to present conservation attitudes on the individual issues. They

will not have voting rights until new legislation has been passed. They are Mr Allan Evans, of Temuka, and Professor Alan Mark, Dunedin. The system whereby the Land Settlement Board decides the ownership and control of land will soon be overtaken by the Government’s restructuring. Such decisions will then become the province of the new Crown Estate Commission. Federated Mountain Clubs has accused the department and the board of trying to alienate this particular piece of land before the new system comes in. Mr McMillan said he could not understand the charge because the recreation bodies were aware of the nature of the discussions that had been held in committee;