Who Owns the High Country

Description

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Who Owns the High Country? is a startling exposé of bureaucracy gone wrong. This controversial story tells how large areas of high country in the South Island were sold off to runholders for knock-down prices, in a process that was hidden from public view.

The author of this book, Dr Ann Brower, came to New Zealand on a Fulbright scholarship and, through her research into the politics of land reform, exposed this quiet scandal. She discovered that the Crown had been paying the runholders of South Island high-country stations to freehold parts of their pastoral lease farms, subsequently leaving them to subdivide their newly-owned land for massive profits.

Land that has gone into private ownership in these deals has included significant parts of the shorelines of Lakes Tekapo, Wanaka, Hawea and Wakatipu, as well as some of the finest vineyard country in Central Otago.

When Ann Brower first published her research it caused a great deal of controversy and ultimately led to changes in the government’s flawed review process.

Who Owns the High Country? explains how and why this process was allowed to go unchecked, and documents the rise and fall of farmer domination of high-country land reform. It is an important book, and required reading for anyone who cares about the high country of the South Island.

‘A high-country saga in which farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians battle for supremacy. It is also a legal thriller in which the nature of property rights takes centre stage. Wealth and power are exposed in a way seldom seen in a true life setting.’ Nevil Gibson, Editor in Chief, National Business Review

‘Brower exposes the hidden losses in tenure review’s ‘win-win’. Bureaucrats have fleeced New Zealanders of biodiversity, access, land and money. This book gives knowledge and power to the public to write the epilogue.‘ Jeanette Fitzsimons, MP, Green Party Co-leader

about the author

Dr Ann Brower was raised in North Carolina in the USA. She completed her MA at Yale and her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, before coming to New Zealand on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is currently a Lecturer in Public Policy at Lincoln University.