Kevin L. JONES
Poet Ursula Bethell wrote of the New Zealand ‘mountains frowning on the homesteads below’. She was referring to the inland regions in the South Island where pastoralism is set in relatively high altitude valleys (300-1000 m a.s.l.) and where seasonal and terrain patterns dictate where and how stock (merinos or cattle) can be pastured. Managing the effects of weather calamities such as snow fall and broader environmental failure such as the rabbit pest have been the key to the success of pastoralism. There are many heritage places that represent early and failed colonial practice. Sites include tracks/routes, sub-alpine passes, desertified and/or abandoned land, cob and wooden homesteads and huts, fences, enclosure patterns, dips, rabbiters’ and cullers’ camps, yards and woolsheds. Much of the high country is Crown leasehold. Leaseholders can now opt to go into a tenure review process with the Crown where leased land may be freeholded, the lease given up or cash payments made in various combinations. The outcome of tenure review has been deeply controversial mainly because land is valued according to current use (low-intensity pastoralism), the sale of ‘iconic’ landscapes, the potential barring of recreational access, the inadequacy of ‘lowland reserves’ (which includes most historic heritage areas) and the cost and difficulty of weed and pest control in land given over to conservation of tussock grasslands.