Lees-Galloway Iain: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17097] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 It is good to get those votes tidied up but where is that 0.4 hectare? I wonder whether there would be room on that 0.4 hectare to form “Bennett Park”. That is what I want to know and I wonder whether that is where it has gone; it is possible. It could be a place for passive recreation or it could be more of an active recreation spot; we do not know. 
Clause 4 “Purpose” is the guts of what this bill is all about. The clause states that the bill vests the land in the Hamilton City Council as a recreation reserve under the Reserves Act 1977 and repeals the Hamilton City (Parana Park) Empowering Act 1958. I happen to have the Act in my hand. The original 1958 Act was used mainly to change the use of the dwelling house which had been handed over to the council for use as a children’s convalescent home but as far back as 1958 that purpose was no longer suitable. 
The purpose of the original Act was laid out as follows in the preamble: “Whereas George Parr of Hamilton farmer deceased who died on or about the twenty-sixth day of February nineteen hundred and twenty-nine did by his last will probate whereof was granted to the Public Trustee give and devise his freehold property being Number 3 River Road Hamilton and being part Allotment 219 of the Parish of Kirikiriroa as the same is more particularly delineated on a plan deposited in the Land Registry Office at Auckland under Number S 3401 and thereon subdivided into Lots 1 2 and 3 (hereinafter called Parana Park) unto the Mayor Councillors and Burgesses of the Borough of Hamilton to be used as follows:”. I will not go into the exact uses as we have covered those quite well. 
That description is quite close to the description we saw in the original clause 3 of the bill as introduced. The purpose is to repeal the original Hamilton City (Parana Park) Empowering Act 1958 which describes the piece of land in the terms used in the original interpretation. It was amended by the Local Government and Environment Committee probably for very useful reasons but reasons that have not really been particularly well clarified in the House. The Department of Internal Affairs report to the select committee on the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill recommended no amendments to clause 3. I should imagine that is because it fitted the purpose of this bill so closely but that is a matter that we have moved on from now although unfortunately it has not really been canvassed all that well during the debate tonight. It might be useful if the member in charge of this bill or the chairman of the select committee were able to clarify that matter. I think it would tidy up a few things. 
The purpose of the legislation is to repeal the Hamilton City (Parana Park) Empowering Act and then to vest the land in the council as a recreation reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. I note that the majority of submitters disagreed with clause 4(a) as it stands at present and recommended that the land should be vested in the council as a historic reserve. It appears again that the select committee did not consider that was an appropriate action to take. The officials’ comment on this is that the clause gives effect to the advertised object of the bill to vest Parana Park in the council as a recreation reserve under the Reserves Act 1977 and that the proposed amendment by the submitters would be outside the scope of that advertised object. But that does not really describe why that was considered to be an inappropriate course of action. It would be useful to the Committee if either the member in charge of the bill or the chair of the select committee could give members some explanation about that.