Occupiers jittery about land claim

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 5

Occupiers jittery about land claim

Crown leaseholders appeared to have been lulled into false security, said the legal adviser to Federated Fanners, Mr Ewan Chapman, yesterday. He was responding to a statement by counsel for the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board, Mr Paul Temm Q.C., outlining the board’s intentions concerning several million hectares of leasehold land.

"All persons now using Crown land should take notice that the claimants may be seeking a recommendation from the tribunal in respect of it,” Mr Temm said. Mr Chapman said this appeared to contradict earlier statements by the claimants that they would not interfere with individual titles.

“What we want is for the Crown to quantify the claims and remedies so that we are given the opportunity to respond,” he said.

The chairman of the South Island high-country

committee of Federated Farmers, Mr Hamish Ensor, speaking on behalf of pastoral lessees, said the statement represented a “backward step.” “It does nothing to relieve the anxieties of pastoral leaseholders or any Crown leaseholders. We are very disappointed,” he said. The corporate solicitor for Landcorp, Mr Kit Mouat, said the statement represented cause for concern. “It worries us to the extent that we would administer leases but if they are claimed by the Maori people we could lose that administration.” This was unlikely to happen, he said, because of Mr Temm’s statement that the claimants could be satisfied with unencumbered Crown land so that no present occupiers or lessees would be affectcd. “It could very well be that we may lose some farm blocks,” Mr Mouat said. The chairman of the

North Canterbury Leaseholders’ Association, Mr Patrick McGloin, said he took comfort in the promise of Judge Ashley McHugh of the Waitangi Tribunal that the contractual rights enjoyed by Crown leaseholders would be fully protected by the tribunal. Mr Temm later said the claimants had no wish to disturb the existing arrangements for leaseholders but he acknowledged that there was still the possibility that the leaseholds could be threatened by remedies presented in the claim. The claimants could not be specific until they received a map, with a suitable legend showing what land was encumbered by lease, licence, or occupation right, he said. • A feature article in “The Press” yesterday said that Mr Peter Ruka is a member of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board. Mr Ruka, a tutor in Maori studies, is not a member of the board.