Twyford Phil: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — In Committee 
Twyford Phil: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17098] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 I will pick up from where my colleague Iain Lees-Galloway left off in raising the question of why the choice has been made to make the subject of the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill a recreation reserve and not a historic reserve. There were among the submissions received at the Local Government and Environment Committee— 
Simon Bridges 
: You should be talking about Gloria Park. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: The member for Tauranga has a lot to say and he thinks he is a bit of an expert on local government. But in 6 weeks of select committee hearings on the Auckland super-city legislation the only thing that member asked about after we had just sat through a long submission from the chief executive of the Museum of Transport and Technology was the cost to get into that museum these days. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: The member knows why I am on my feet. It is about content; the member will focus on clause 4. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: Thank you Mr Chairman for refocusing this debate away from irrelevancies like the member for Tauranga. 
The question at hand is why this legislation classifies Parana Park as a recreation reserve and not a historic reserve. That is the question and it is highly relevant to the purpose section of this bill. The committee received a very interesting submission from the Waikato Tree Trust and this was the main point that the trust made to the committee. It argued that clause 4(a) should be amended to vest the land in the council as a historic reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. It made the argument that that would fit much better with the historic character of the area. 
The trust also made the point that what really distinguishes Parana Park right next to the Waikato River is a fantastic stand of mature trees. The trust presented evidence to the committee that identified 27 historic trees in this reserve including five English oaks that are more than 100 years old and that were planted originally by George Parr as part of his settlement of the area. These trees are over 100 years old and were planted by George Parr himself. There is also an elm a red oak and London plane trees—all over 80 years old—that were also planted by George Parr. That really is the major reason for Parana Park to be considered a very special piece of the Hamilton landscape. To make it a historic reserve in this law would better recognise that. 
The Waikato Tree Trust felt that the Hamilton City Council has not adequately recognised the importance of these trees. It proposed that in the schedule of trees the council go and register and protect those trees because as this Committee will know the National Government has taken away the right of city councils and territorial authorities to protect trees of special significance by using group protection orders. So if councils want to protect our bush anywhere in their territories now they have to individually list every single tree and that is precisely what the Waikato Tree Trust hoped to achieve in this submission. It felt that by making Parana Park a historic reserve instead of a recreational reserve that would strengthen the protection of these mature trees. The trust noted that under the Reserves Act historic reserves “are established primarily to protect and preserve in perpetuity places objects and natural features of historic archaeological cultural and other special interest.” I think that it is arguable that that is a much more significant feature of Parana Park than the so-called passive recreation that we have spent some time discussing today in the Committee.