Brownlee Gerry: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brownlee Gerry: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5924. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 I move  
That the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. I am very pleased to make a contribution to this second reading debate on what is I think a very good augmentation of the Acts that currently preserve this piece of Christchurch. Just to be clear Riccarton Bush is the last remaining kahikatea remnant on the Canterbury Plains and it is situated right in Christchurch City right in my electorate as it happens. It is also the home of the original settlers in Canterbury the Deans brothers who came out in about 1840 and struggled away for quite a few years before growing into the family that has been so influential in Canterbury since. 
Their original story is a little tragic. The two brothers came out from Scotland in the late 1840s. They originally went to the Wairarapa and then moved to Canterbury. One of the brothers was drowned tragically trying to get sheep across a river. The other brother established the farming operation at Riccarton and one of the features of his work was his closeness to Ngai Tahu. He had a lease for 6 miles in all directions in a radius from Riccarton Bush. I recall at the time that we brought down a new management plan for the bush about 1991 Rick Tau from Ngai Tahu made the comment that they were pleased to see this happen. The place is known as Putaringamotu or “place of the severed ear” in Maori mythology—or Maori folklore I should say. His view then was that when the New Zealand Company the first Canterbury settlers came in the first four ships to the province both the Maori and the Deans brothers got done—an interesting part of our history. It is also suggested that Hagley Park was put in place to keep the separation between the Anglicans in the centre of the city and the Presbyterians at Riccarton. As one of Catholic persuasion I have no particular view about that. 
It was my great honour to be the third chairman of the Riccarton Bush Trust. The trust is a body that has had great continuity since 1914 and during the time I served on the trust we faced the prospect of losing the house and quite possibly losing the bush as well. But it was due only to the foresight of the Deans family that that bush remains now. John Deans was originally quite alarmed as was his wife Jane at the rate at which timber was being cut down in the near vicinity of Christchurch City and made the conscious decision to preserve that piece of bush. You know Jane Deans was a remarkable woman. She lost her husband one of the original two brothers who came to Canterbury within 12 months of her coming back to New Zealand having waited for him in Scotland for about 11 years while he established the farming operation at Riccarton. It is a great history for people to read and to understand the struggles that early settlers went through and I think that given the circumstances in Christchurch at the moment it is quite an inspirational sort of story. 
What this bill does is make sure that protections are in place for that very very special taonga—the kahikatea forest—and that the other grounds which are much more of an English country estate style remain available for people to use and to enjoy. I think it is a good thing that we are able to have a body like this that has a long history in New Zealand terms and has not been swallowed up by other local government activities etc. They do work very very closely with the Christchurch City Council and it is the legal team in the Christchurch City Council that has promoted this bill and I have been delighted to sponsor the bill because of that past association. 
With those few words can I thank the Local Government and Environment Committee members for the work that they have done on this bill. They have made a small change which recognises the fact that between the bill coming to Parliament and today there have been the earthquake events. That has meant that the long-term plan for the Christchurch City Council has been pushed out to 2015. The amendment here allows the plan for the trust’s stewardship of the assets here to be also pushed out to a similar date. With those words I commend this bill to the House and look forward to its rapid passing through the remaining stages.