Deborah Coddington: Defend property rights or become nation of serfs

Telecom Boss Paul Reynolds was in adverts while fly-fishing. But is it a past-time for the rich? Photo / Supplied

I'm told when redneck farmers irritated Rob Muldoon, he said they'd spent too much time driving tractors without wearing hats.

These days the same could be said of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers. It seems members are standing too long on riverbanks without their trusty Tilley hat.

They have come out punching because they're losing the right to wander all over private property to reach their favourite fishing spots, without so much as a please or thank you, let alone crossing the landowner's palm with silver.

President Jim Hale, a man who seems to make "good morning" sound like a declaration of war, is incensed only those with money can access top trout pools.

Last week, it was reported "rich foreigners and celebrities", such as Liam Neeson, Timothy Dalton, Jimmy Carter and Malcolm Fraser, were reputedly paying thousands to come here and be helicoptered into remote rivers to catch trout.

It's a fair bet they probably also appreciate the privacy, the beautiful scenery and the reputation for quality many of our upmarket lodges have earned internationally, so the high prices they pay don't relate exclusively to fly-casting.

Nevertheless, in an article on the federation's website, Hale writes this "exclusive capture" is a "creeping cancer" which started 20 years ago in New Zealand's high country, practised by unscrupulous landowners who wish to financially benefit from something Hale alleges does not belong to them.

It is true the rivers, and the trout in them, are not privately owned and, under the Wildlife Act and Conservation Law Reform Act, farmers may not make money from hunters and fishers, but they are entitled to charge people to cross their land to get to the rivers.

Hale doesn't agree and calls this "unscrupulous commercial interests". Poppycock. If you value something, you should be prepared to make a fair exchange.

And excuse me for being old-fashioned, but whatever happened to asking nicely?

I see Hale is a Manawatu farmer, so I presume he gives away all his beef and lamb, or whatever he farms, because to sell his produce would be unscrupulously commercial.

And I presume, again, his land is privately owned. I wonder how he would feel if every time folk were driving by and felt like a comfort stop they wandered in to use the bathroom. After all, the water flushing the loo came from a bore, river or rain, didn't it Mr Hale? You don't really "own" it. You wouldn't want to block our "access" to it would you?

Actually, given the burdensome health and safety boxes farmers are required to tick every day, I'm surprised they let anyone on their land in case they're sued by the Department of Laziness.

But I digress.

This is an issue of property rights, something in which this country needs a sharp lesson.

We're great when it comes to clinging on to our own property, but then we have this attitude of "what's yours is mine too".

Can we not see "property" does not just mean a thing or an object? It is also a guarantee we have earned the exclusive right to determine how we use what we have earned.

So if we want anglers or trampers to walk across our land, we will let them. But if we want to close it off, we will.

(Likewise, if McDonald's wants to be a family restaurant it has the right to block access to gay websites because it is a private company. I disagree with its stance - gay families are families - but McDonald's has the right to be stupid.)

If we don't retain the right to our own property - so long as we don't use it to breach someone else's rights - then we might as well consider ourselves just serfs, bullied by other citizens and pushed around by the Government.

So three cheers to Agriculture Minister David Carter for stating it is the legitimate property right of an owner to sell the exclusive access for fishing. But why did he have to ask the Walking Access Commission to "look into" negotiating open access "where there is access restricted"?

Someone, give the minister a hat and take away his tractor.