It was premature to say what portion of five Mackenzie Basin high-country pastoral lease farms will pass into private ownership, the property's landlord says.
A spokesman for Land Information New Zealand (Linz) said negotiations on tenure review details for the five properties overlooking Lake Pukaki were continuing, and the proposed split of properties between freehold and Government ownership was still to be decided.
At that stage, known as the preliminary proposal, the public will be invited to make submissions.
The Press newspaper reported this week that 31,550ha of land on Irishman Creek, Maryburn, Simons Pass, Balmoral and The Wolds will be freehold with covenants on 6650ha, and 6147ha will be returned to the Crown.
Such a split was attacked by conservation groups and opposition political parties as out of balance, a threat to rare species and ecosystems, and would allow dryland areas to be irrigated.
The LINZ spokesman said it was wrong to link the freeholding of pastoral lease land and irrigation, as the land owner would have to apply to local councils for the right to irrigate under the Resource Management Act.
