Mountain clubs contest Mr Lange’s statement

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 31

Mountain clubs contest Mr Lange’s statement

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Federated Mountain Clubs has contested the statement by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, that high-country administration was simple (“The Press,” September 3). But the federation’s vice-president, Dr Hugh Barr, said that administration would certainly become simple if the solution Mr Lange was offered was adopted. Control of pastoral leases by the new Land Development and Management Corporation would destroy the checks and balances of the present system. The role of this corporation was to maximise production, he said, and if

it were allowed to control high-country land it would form an impregnable power block with runholders.

The Government was proposing that the Department of Conservation have vague powers to protect conservation and recreation values; without real control of the land this formula would be worthless. Under the existing system, the Land Settlement Board set policies and had a quasi-judicial function in resolving conflicts and disputes, Dr Barr said. In a blatant piece of empire-building, the new corporation had made a bid to take over this function — wanting to be both poacher and gamekeeper.

The conservation and recreation movement had been advocating a fair solution to this dilemma for some time, he said. Pastoral leasehold land could still be vested in a neutral agency, and the role could be performed by the stewardship division of the Department of Conservation. It was also vital to retain an independent representative body to carry out Land Settlement Board functions. Many runholders had been wary of this proposal because of the conservation image of the new Department of Conservation and they did not realise that its stewardship division would be genuinely neutral, Dr Barr said.