Government stealing land?

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 624, 20 February 1996, Page 4

Government stealing land?

• We see the Resource Management chickens are coming home to roost. The Ruapehu District Council has advised me that the RMA gives no pre-eminence to farming or private property rights. A farmer who wants to cut down indigenous vegetation on his land in order to continue farming has been recommended against in the district plan submissions. The RMA is a thinly disguised land and rights rip off of horrendous magnitude. The act is attempting to steal my equity in my land, my property rights, the fruit of 20 years labour, my lifestyle, my business, my children' s and my own future economic and spiritual well-being. In my view the title to my property is a contract between myself and the Crown. The Crown reserves only mineral rights: all other rights in the land accrue to me. If the Crown attempts to gain further rights in my land by legislation or any other means without my consent then it (the Crown) has committed a unilateral breach of contract. The Resource Management Act as the vehicle for this breach of contract can hardly be legally binding on the landowner. The Ruapehu District Council further advises me that the objectives of the RMA over-rules my right to freedom of expression. The right to freedom of expression is a basic human right that along with my property rights I refuse to relinquish. My land belongs to me. I will not have pudgy

fingered jackbooted bureaucrats standing over me as I work my land. What the RMA is pushing as a philosophy is that the 'end justifies the means' . Well I recall a guy who once held the same beliefs: his name was Adolph Hitler.

James

Creedmore

Ruatiti Valley