NATIONAL PARKS BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7922, 14 April 1887, Page 5

NATIONAL PARKS BILL.

0 [by telegraph.— correspondent.] . ® Wellington, Wednesday. I have received from the Hon. Minister of J Lands a copy of this Bill, which is to be int troduced early in the ensuing session. It is intituled an "Act to authorise the setting apart of tracts of land as national parks." The short title is " The National Parks Aot, ISS7." The Governor in Council, by pro- I clamation in tho Gazette, may declare any area of Crown lands wherein there are any mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or i "wonders," to be reserved and withdrawn e from settlement, occupancy, or sale, and to be--0 dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Such lands shall be 3 designated national parks. Every such park 1 shall be under the control of the Governor. ' There are clauses providing (1) for the pro- ' servation of timber, mineral deposits, etc, ; (2) ' against the wanton destruction of fish, game, ' etc. ; (3) to lay out, enclose, and plant,or build 1 therein for the purposes provided by the ' Act; (4) for laying off roads, bridle paths, ' and footways ; (5) for the erection of culverts. bridges ; (6) and generally for the beneficial arrangement of such lauds. Under the Act each national park will be a public domain in the meaning of the Domains Act, ISSI, but the leasing power of tho Governor under that Act is limited as follows :— "The power conferred upon the Governor by section 5 of the Public Domains Act, to demise and lease % within a public domain, for any not exceeding twenty-one years, shall, in respect of ' national parks' be limited to the granting of leases for building purposes for any term not exceeding ten years, of small parcel of ground at any place or places in any such park, where buildings for the accommodation of visitors may be required. The Governor may appoint Boards of Trustees, to whom his power may be delegated." The recent gift of lands by native owners for the purposes provided for in this Act is dealt with specially under the title, "The Tongariro National Park." The land is described in the schedule to the Bill as comprising 63,000 acres. Your readers will have a better idea of the extent of the land the natives dedicated to the public if I transcribe the schedule: —"All that territory in the counties of East Taupo, West Taupo, and Wanganui, containing by admeasurement 63,000 acres, more or les3, comprehended TC ithin a circle around trig H on Rnapehu, having a radius of four miles from that point, together with the area comprehended within a circle having a radius of three miles from , trig D on Ngaruahoe, together with an area having a radius of three miles from trigs D and 0 (on "Ngaruahoe), and to Mari; also that area, two miles wide, between the circles round H and ' D, which is bisected by a line connecting 1 those points. The Minister of Land's, Te 1 Heuheu, Tukino, chief of the Ngatituwhare- 1 toa tribe, and another person to.be appointed « by the Governor, will be the first trustees, ( and the clause provides that the successors ( of Tnkino shall be elected every four years ( by a public meeting of the Ngatituwharetoa. Tukino is to be chairman of the board, and to holc&the office during his life. ]