Nick Smith
National Party Outdoor Recreation Spokesperson

24 August 2005

PC DoC bans bronze tahr from Park

“National will require DoC to re-consider its decision to reject a bronze tahr statue at Mt Cook village,” National Outdoor Recreation spokesperson Nick Smith said today.

The Game & Forest Foundation had planned to erect a full size tahr bronze statue by Christmas to mark 100 years since Himalayan tahr were introduced to the Southern Alps. The Foundation’s application to the Department has been refused on the grounds that tahr are an introduced species and as such it would be inappropriate. The Trust looking to site the statue in an alternative location.

“This political correctness is so typical of DoC under this Labour Government. Tahr are part of the heritage of the Mt Cook region and the statue would do no harm in the park village.

“Tahr numbers do need to be controlled because of the fragile alpine environment, but banning a statue achieves nothing.

“Tahr are a celebrated species by hunters. The statue would add to the experience of the thousands of visitors to the Mt Cook village and tell part of the story of the Park’s history.

“The Sir Edmund Hillary statue in the village highlights the connection between Mt Cook and the Himalayas and the statue of the tahr would add to this link.

“If we are to ban the tahr statue because it is an introduced species next we will be removing the infamous sheep dog statue in Tekapo, the salmon statue from Rakaia and the marino sheep from Omarama.

“The stupid decision to ban the tahr statue is just another example of just how out of touch DoC is from mainstream New Zealanders under Labour. National looks forward to injecting some common sense into DoC decision making.“

ENDS

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