National park entry fee report dismissed

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 26

National park entry fee report dismissed

PA Wellington Suggestions that users could be charged when entering national parks have been dismissed as totally impractical and very expensive by the Director-General of Lands, Mr Bing Lucas. He said he had not heard of a Treasury report proposing such a charge. As head of the department which administered the parks he would expect to have heard. The director of the Treasury’s Land-use Division, Mr Tom Berthold, confirmed that an investigating officer was working on an internal report on national parks. He did not know what it contained, when it would be finished, or whether it would be put forward to the Treasury’s management.

Any proposals by investigating officers which were endorsed by management were sent to the Minister of Finance, he said.

“I don’t know what the investigating officer will come up with. Whatever he has got, it’s not a Treasury proposal,” Mr Berthold said. It was Government policy to adopt a userpays principle whenever possible. Within national parks there were commercial ventures which

were charged for their services within the park. Other charges included voluntary hut fees and some car-parking fees.

Mr Berthold said he would be surprised if it were “even feasible let alone desirable on other grounds to charge individuals entering the parks.

“If it is not feasible it doesn’t go any further,” he said.

Mr Lucas said the logisitics of charging entry fees made it impractical. He had studied the way it was done with parks in North America and found it generated less revenue than New Zealand’s sys-

tem of charging for services. Collecting entry fees was expensive and needed ranger stations. Mr Lucas quoted one Canadian park which col- ’ lected $BOOO a year in ? fees but paid $35,000 to * staff the station.

Philosophically he was against any idea of charg- ..... ing for parks entry. “We are emphasising in our centennial theme the •> concept of parks for ’ people,” he said. “The whole approach is to encourage people to use them and specifically those who might not be - able to afford the cost of ‘ entry.”