New Lands Department

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 33

New Lands Department

PA Wellington A new Lands s Depart,ment will be created when the State sector corporations come into being on April 1, said the chairman of the Government caucus primary production committee, Mr Ralph Maxwell. The new department will take over the residual functions of the Lands and Survey Department which will ■ cease to exist after April 1. These will be the advisory, policy and regulatory

functions which do not fit into the commercial orientation of the new corporations. A new Lands Department will add to the list of new State organisations that have arisen from the shake-up of the Government environmental agencies. These are the Survey and Land Information Department, Conservation Department, the Forestry Corporation, the Forests Department and the Land Corporation. Mr Maxwell said his committee had been in-

volved since day one on the reorganisation in this area. The move to create a Lands Department was similar to the one that had seen the creation of the Department of Forests which was administering the non-commercial functions which were not appropriate for the Forestry Corporation. A legislative package would be introduced to Parliament before April 1 to create the new department as well as to establish the new corporations, Mr Maxwell said.