High country policy

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 16

High country policy

Sir, — The absurdity of Treasury dogma that land can be arbitrarily divided into two categories (conservation and commercial) is nowhere more evident than in the high country where pastoral leases typically have multiple values. It is thus encouraging that the Department of Lands (now Office of Crown Lands), in its draft Land Bill, has proposed a three-way categorisation within each individual lease: Land with essentially production values, which could be freeholded; land with prime con-servation-recreation values, which could be surrendered to the Department of Conservation; and land with a mixture of values. Government commitment should be forthcoming to provide funding for the necessary assessment of these values prior to

such categorisation. Land with a mixture of values should then be retained under Crown ownership, with central Government control and Ministerial responsibility for the consistent administration of pastoral leases according to a national policy (still lacking) framed to reconcile conservation and production interests. — Yours, etc., ERIC BENNETT. November 22, 1988.