Dean Jacqui: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2939. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 I move  
That the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill be now read a first time. 
 I nominate that the Local Government and Environment Committee consider the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. The items contained in this Waitaki District Council local bill have been a long time coming to this House. Although on the face of it when we read the bill the matters contained look relatively dry and of a legal nature actually the impact on the people whom it affects is quite strong. So to those people I have talked to and to whom the matters in this bill relate I am very pleased for their sake that tonight we have commenced the parliamentary part and the scrutiny of this local bill.  
The bill contains three matters and I will run through them in turn. The first one relates to the Palmerston Showgrounds. This bill revokes the reservation of part lot 7 known as the Palmerston Showgrounds under the Reserves Act 1977 and vests ownership of that land in the Waitaki District Council. The history of this item is that the council entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of the Palmerston Showgrounds with the current lessees of the showgrounds in the year 2000. However the problem was that the reserve status of the property gives effective ownership of the Palmerston Showgrounds to the Crown as a Crown-owned reserve. Ngai Tahu and the Department of Conservation have consented to the sale of the Palmerston Showgrounds by the Crown to the council. The council in turn on the passage of this bill considers it appropriate to regularise the occupation of the current lessees—that is a family—of the Palmerston Showgrounds. It is going to do that by revoking its reserve status freeing it of all express and implied reservations or restrictions—which of course it has under the Reserves Act 1977—and vesting ownership of the property in the council absolutely. The council may then consider selling the property to the current lessees. That is the first item contained in this bill.  
The second item is a lot in Oamaru township itself and that is lot 1 under the Reserves Act—DP 345820 to be specific—which will come under scrutiny by the select committee. Again the bill vests ownership in the current registered proprietors. So the ownership will not be vested in the council; this item in the bill vests ownership with the current proprietors who will then become the owners of that property. I know that this particular part of the bill is really important to that family who I know are very concerned that it goes through this Parliament.  
At the time that the council entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of the freehold of this property which was in 2004 the council was unaware of the reserve status of the property which gave effective ownership of the property to the Crown. Ngai Tahu again and the Department of Conservation have consented to the revocation of the reserve status and the ratification of the sale of the freehold property by the council to the original registered proprietors who will then on the passage of this bill become the owners and they will be very glad to do so.  
Those are the first two items contained in the bill and the third item contained in this bill relates to Forrester Heights which is also locally known as Lookout Point. It is a parcel of land that looks north-east down on to the Oamaru Harbour and currently is a relatively steep bank that is under grass and a bit of scrub. It is quite a nice parcel of land as it happens.  
There was a historical error made by the former borough essentially in relation to semantics. The land was originally purchased by the Government from Ngai Tahu in 1848 as a part of the Kemp purchase. The land was included in the original subdivision of the town of Oamaru. Oamaru is a historic town and this was part of the original subdivision. In 1885 the land was set aside as an endowment in aid of the funds for the benefit of the then Oamaru Borough Council a predecessor to the Waitaki District Council in accordance with section 38 of the Land Act 1877.  
Now we come to the interesting part of the bill. An administrative oversight that occurred in 1937 mistakenly vested that parcel of land as a reserve. Reserve status and endowment status are two completely separate concepts and the local borough of the day may not have been fully aware of this or appreciated its importance back in 1937. So the confusion that surrounds the status of this land is largely a result of language or semantics. The land was reserved as an endowment in 1885 but it was not intended that the land was ever to be classified as reserve itself with the consequent encumbrances on that land which have now become apparent with the passage of time. This bill addresses the clerical error made in 1937 by clarifying the status of the land as an endowment.  
The Waitaki District Council has been working with Land Information New Zealand together with Ngai Tahu the Department of Conservation and the Commissioner of Crown Lands. I have been involved and so has parliamentary counsel on this matter. All those parties have consented to the content of the bill and to the objectives of the bill. It is worth noting that Ngai Tahu have taken considerable advice on this issue. They have confirmed to the Waitaki District Council that their view is that the council has a right to freehold title to the land and that the land is therefore not subject to the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998.  
So there you have it. It is on the face of it a perhaps pedestrian and technical bill to do with three matters but I can tell members that as far as the locals are concerned this bill is of great interest. I can assure the House that the Local Government and Environment Committee will give it its closest consideration. I commend the bill to the House.