Barry Maggie: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Barry Maggie: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5936. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I rise with great pleasure to talk to the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill in its second reading. As others have alluded to I am very familiar with Riccarton Bush. I have been there many times during the period when I studied horticulture at Lincoln University. Subsequently we filmed it for  
Maggie’s Garden Show 
 on many occasions. That is because it is unique to New Zealand and that is part of the reason why I am particularly in support of this effort to make sure that it is set in proper governance and that the ability of the board to preserve protect and conserve this remnant of New Zealand native bush is allowed to happen in the best way possible. 
It seems to me as someone who has looked at native reserves over a long period of time—nigh on 30 years—that this as the oldest protected natural piece of bush in New Zealand really does require our protection as the people who legislate. Before us there was the Deans family. We have heard from the Hon Gerry Brownlee the sponsoring member of Parliament for Ilam that this has a proud history and a unique history. The brothers Deans one of whom drowned at an early age—and I guess the mantle of protecting that wonderful piece of bush was then taken up by his widow Jane—and the Deans family were original colonial conservators. They decided that this was a piece of land that needed to be preserved and they took a leadership role that I would have to say many have followed down the decades but perhaps not quite as diligently as the Deans family. 
When the Deans gifted it to New Zealand they did so with sums of money involved and they did so with a rigorous governance structure around it. It really did set a benchmark and a gold standard for the sort of governance that we have seen in covenanted land with the Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust and so forth. Riccarton Bush remains a unique feature. I am going to explain a little bit about why it needs to be preserved in the way that has been suggested by this legislation. 
As I have said I have filmed there many times. It is highly significant in this country. It was formed at a time when Victorian gardens were the vogue so therefore we have the oldest pear tree in New Zealand which is a French cultivar that was planted in 1846. It is still fruiting I believe—I have not seen it in the last few years—but it is something that is a unique species and a unique feature. I know that people who do heritage fruit growing and so forth have taken cuttings from it and it continues to live on. This is one of the truly attractive elements of people like the Deans who were visionaries and who made sure that something was preserved in perpetuity. Gardeners then take on that mantle in their own way. For me that pear tree this French cultivar from 1846 lives on in thousands of gardens through the Canterbury area and throughout New Zealand. 
At the time when the Deans were putting their own private garden down conifers were in vogue—that was the Victoriana moment—so it has the oldest living conifer in New Zealand that has been imported. It is a Western Himalayan fir. At nearly 30 metres tall it is a remarkable tree. It has been protected and again that would not have occurred without the visionary determination and tenacity of the Deans family. 
For most of us who have ever been to the bush it is the kahikatea as it is known the white pine that really sets it apart. This is a tree that has truly been part of our colonial heritage. It was cut down and used for furniture for buildings and for butter boxes—can you imagine—to send butter back to the United Kingdom. It was not highly valued but it was decimated. It was originally called a podocarp when John Banks came here—no not that one; Joseph Banks—with Captain Cook back in the mid-1700s. He looked at the way in which it was classified and thought it was a unique species. He thought it was a podocarp. It was subsequently renamed— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Did he get investigated? 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: —and it is called a  
Dacrycarpus 
. So there you go—say that fast three times Shane Jones and see how you fare. 
The kahikatea is called the white pine but it is not a pine at all. The Deans family when they did chop it down used that colonial approach of making the most of what was around them but not over-abusing it. Many of the existing older buildings that remain at Riccarton Bush have actually come from the felled kahikatea. The buildings have been made from those trees which is a fantastic living legacy once again. 
Fossil remains of the kahikatea date back some 130 million years. It is a Gondwanaland tree and it has been recognised internationally. David Bellamy came across to New Zealand in the mid-1990s and filmed a programme  
Moa’s Ark 
 which was based at Riccarton Bush because of its unique heritage. He was endlessly impressed—in that knowledgable and lisping way that he had down to a fine art—and said that this was a remarkable piece of bush. He praised these New Zealanders the Deans for having the foresight to make sure that it would be preserved in perpetuity. 
It has also been a sacred place to Maori. It is called Putaringamotu which translates to meaning basically that the location is “Pu” “taringa” is the ear and “motu” is the isolated clump of trees that is Riccarton Bush itself. Maori legend has it that at a clearing in the bush if a trained person put their ear to the ground they could hear people coming. They could hear if there was an enemy approaching because this is very swampy land. I think ultimately that is why the Deans were so successful in keeping it intact and I commend them for that. 
When we were at the Local Government and Environment Committee—and many other members have talked about how we went as a select committee to Christchurch to hear the submissions—we had a great-grandson of the original founders of Deans Bush come to talk to us. We were also privileged to talk with Brian Molloy who edited a book on Riccarton Bush  
Riccarton Bush: 
Putaringamotu 
. He donated that book to our Parliamentary Library. In fact I went and had a look at it. I have got one at home but I went and got it out of the library this afternoon to remind myself of what an extraordinary heritage the Deans family have left us. 
And what a huge responsibility we now have as legislators to ensure that it remains as easy as possible for this family to continue to keep this piece of bush and the surrounding historic buildings in perpetuity. The trustees were very excited when they came to talk to us because the cottage had been damaged by the earthquakes and they were looking to raise funds and to restore the cottage. There is an enormous amount of support. 
As I think Gerry Brownlee said very eloquently earlier it remains a symbol for the people of Christchurch who love their gardens. It is of course the Garden City. It remains a symbol of what is possible. It can uplift people and carry them through difficult times because of its longevity and because it has been there for a long time and will endure beyond this generation and successive generations. So as legislators I think we take that responsibility very seriously. Certainly as someone who has visited the area and the city after the earthquake I was encouraged to see that Riccarton Bush had not sustained very much damage. As to why that would be more educated seismologist-orientated people than I could hazard a guess but it seems to be without getting too fanciful about it that the spirit of the Deans family has enveloped it. I think that as a group of Christchurch people—Cantabrians—they have led the way in an inspirational way. 
It behoves us as legislators to ensure that the board and the chief executive officer of Riccarton Bush will be able to do what they want to do in as easy and as expedient a way as possible. They have struggled with bureaucracy. There are three pieces of legislation that inform the governance of Riccarton Bush. It is pretty complicated. I know that the Hon Gerry Brownlee looked at it carefully and decided to take this course of action with this piece of legislation so that it could be done in a fast way and would be done in a way that keeps the integrity of this extraordinary property. 
So in the second reading of the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill I commend it to the House and I commend us all in the select committee which was very well led by our select committee chair who made sure that we argued this through in a very good way. 
In fact as with the previous piece of legislation we talked about today this has been relatively trouble-free. The Opposition has had the occasional pot shot tonight about protecting other heritage and has tried to broaden it out into a political issue as is its wont. But I think generally speaking as we heard the submissions when we went to the people of Christchurch and they came to us and said that this needs to be preserved because of these reasons we listened to them carefully with an open mind and also with the sort of tolerance and informed decisions that I have not seen on very many other occasions in my 10 or so months in the House. The political stuff was pretty much left to one side and I think that is again something that reflects well on us as politicians. Even the most obdurate Opposition person could not possibly not support this bill in the spirit and intention with which the Hon Gerry Brownlee put it together. 
Riccarton Bush of course was gifted by the Deans family to the people of Canterbury. That is going back to 1914 but beyond that I think it has spread to encompass I suppose their affections and has gone well into the hearts of all of us in New Zealand who like to go to see intact bush. Last week I was at Outward Bound and the kahikatea grove there was a place where we climbed the trees. I think the spirit and intention of that white pine and these  
Dacrycarpus 
 are things that I— 
Hon John Banks 
: Who climbed the trees? You climbed the trees? 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: —personally treasure and want. Yes I might go and climb the trees at Riccarton Bush—this is entirely possible Mr Banks. I will not be falling out either much as the Opposition might like that to occur. People like us who are gardeners—