A Raglan Maori landowner is frustrated that the foreshore and seabed issue is clouding attempts to keep trespassers off privately owned whanau land.
Pablo Rickard has had enough of people trespassing on private land to get to seafood and surf at an idyllic lagoon in Raglan's Whale Bay.
He said signs telling people the land was private property had been smashed and ignored.
"People think they have the right to climb the fence and smash the signs," he said.
It was not just vandalism the family had endured. A visiting 70-year-old aunt was abused by unwanted visitors when asked to leave.
Mr Rickard, son of the late Eva Rickard, says people were confusing the foreshore and seabed issue with the rights of a private land owner.
"This is nothing to do with the foreshore and seabed. This is privately owned land. I have the right to allow who I want to come on to my property."
The large tract of land has been privately owned by the Rickard and Kereopa families for generations.
"People think because we are Maori they can find legislation to make us give up our land."
His stance is backed up by Waikato District Council community assets manager, Gary Allis.
In a letter to the Raglan community board he said public access to land above the mean high water mark is at the landowner's discretion.
"Land owned above the high water mark is privately owned and owners are entitled to fence their boundaries and exclude the public."
A Raglan resident who did want to be named said that previously anyone could walk along the Whale Bay reserve strip to get to the lagoon, a popular swimming spot and good surf area.
He said locals were annoyed that a mesh fence was put up, forcing anyone trying to get to the lagoon to take a potentially precarious and slippery route over rocks.
Mr Rickard said the fence was nothing new but because public access to beaches was an issue at the moment people were making a point.
He was not opposed to letting people cross the land,
"If people ask I never refuse, but they must come through the front gate," he said.
- NZPA
New Zealand
