HARCOURTS/SUPPLIED
This piece of public land at Motukaraka Point, Porirua, was sold at auction for $1.635 million on Thursday, despite a neighbours consortium wanting to purchase it for just $180,000.
A neighbours’ consortium, led by a Greater Wellington Regional councillor, believed a prime piece of public land in Porirua should be sold to it for $180,000. Porirua City Council valued it at $600,000. Yet, when auctioneer Wayne Sutton’s gavel struck the wooden sound block at Harcourt’s Paraparaumu on Thursday, the 6000-square-metre Motukaraka Point land sold for $1.635 million following “a bidding war”. The winning bid came from an anonymous Wellington man who told
Whangarei Falls was preserved under the Scenery Preservation Act.
How did some of NZ s most scenic spots win protection from development? WILL HARVIE takes a look at the history of government-funded efforts to protect some of our beautiful landscapes. As gigs go, being appointed to the Scenery Preservation Commission in 1904 sounds pretty good. They were given expense accounts and ordered to visit all parts of Aotearoa New Zealand to find naturally beautiful places. The commissioners then bought these places (or tried to) and preserved them for all time. The five men who got this gig indeed identified and bought beautiful places – 61 of them totalling almost 5900 hectares.