Land fiasco averted

Forest and Bird, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1 August 1987, Page 17

Land fiasco averted

The Government has been forced to recognise the sad state of the proposed land carve-up that accompanied corporatisation. Inadequate procedures meant that vast areas of land with water and soil, environmental and recreational value were scheduled for transfer to the corporations. Thanks almost entirely to a public lands coalition of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Federated Mountain Clubs and the acclimatisation societies, that error has been averted. Now the Government has

quite rightly decided to keep disputed allocations of land under Crown ownership till the issues have been resolved. A technical advisory group of officials and representatives from the coalition, the Maori community and Federated Farmers has drawn up criteria for solving disputed allocations with Government policy. They discovered areas of pastoral leasehold land, over which recreational permits were held, were scheduled for transfer, contrary to the State Owned Enterprises Act. Now that land will remain under Crown ownership. Likewise, large river beds and a number of other areas will remain with the Crown. The chairman of the Cabinet committee on state owned enterprises, Geoffrey Palmer, has been generous in his praise of the coalition in presenting "the most comprehensive, thorough and best-researched submission of all’’. So he should be. The coalition checked every scheduled land transfer against topographical maps and presented it to the Government. This should have been done by the new Department of Conservation, which failed in its task. The coalition spent about $15,000 on maps, technical equipment, extra research staff, travelling and printing costs. In addition, six to seven people worked well into the night, seven days a week for six weeks to complete the task. Mr Palmer should demonstrate the sincerity of his praise and ensure the Government reimburse the coalition in full for its time and expenditure. The coalition has done the job which the Government should have ensured was properly completed by the Department of Conservation. It has saved the Government the embarrassment of the inevitable results of its own inadequate efforts. It has also saved taxpayers vast amounts of money. Had the scheduled land transfers gone through, taxpayers would have had to pay millions of dollars to buy land back from the corporations. These efforts should be recognised.