The Government is expected to hand control of the 180,000ha Molesworth station to the Department of Conservation (DoC) when the lease with Landcorp expires in 2005.
Prime Minister Helen Clark is expected to fly into the remote high country station spanning Marlborough and Canterbury this morning to make the announcement, which
has been the subject of intense debate between opposition parties, farmers and environmental lobby groups.
National Party agriculture spokesman David Carter said he expected the Government would give control of the station to DoC.
It would be, he said, a "major land grab which will ultimately destroy our best-known high country station".
Molesworth manager Jim Ward said he did not know what the announcement would be.
"If it is just a change in landlord then I have got no doubt we can make it work. If, in the long term, the cattle are taken off then I have got reservations about whether the weed and pest control would get any consideration at all. The cattle pay those bills. Simple as that."
Public access was also potentially problematic, with dangerous snow drifts in winter and risk from fire in summer.
Kaikoura MP Lynda Scott said neighbours had not been properly consulted and were understandably worried about the effects of the change, particularly with regard to weeds.
"It has been farmed profitably for years and then to find they are going to hand it over to DoC who don't have the money for weed control ... it's not just Molesworth, it is about what it signals."
- NZPA
Herald Feature: Conservation and Environment
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