Army offered forest by Opposition spokesman

Press, 4 August 1987, Page 8

Army offered forest by Opposition spokesman

PA Blenheim The Opposition spokesman on defence, Mr Doug Kidd, says that soldiers can use his own forest for nothing if State corporations move to charge the Army for using their land for military exercises. Mr Kidd said yesterday that the Forestry Corporation had threatened to charge for allowing Army exercises in its forests. He called on other private forest owners to match his offer. Mr Kidd said he had control of a private forest at Linkwater, 45km west of Blenheim. “If local fanners would join with foresters we could offer the Army a

complete range of open and closed country training locations in Marlborough,” he said. Mr Kidd said the Army always bought its supplies in the area in which it trained so there would be a spin-off for local businesses. In addition, the Army often did the odd job or two round the place, which hard-up farmers would welcome. “If enough groups of private landowners rally round and do their bit for the defence of their country, the Army can tell the Forestry Corporation where to stick its forest.” He said the user-pays philosphy had gone ber-

serk when one arm of the Crown had to haggle over payment for training access to land under another arm, the Forestry Corporation.

Mr Kidd said the defence of the country was the Crown’s first obligation and diverting dollars into corporation pockets would be harmful to the defence effort. “If Landcorp, and the Department of Conservation, which together control vast areas of Crown lands also take up the same ideas, the Army would be entitled to ask how they are supposed to prepare to defend New Zealand," he said.