Squatters rights do not exist under New Zealand law, defeating claims by a North Taranaki farmer that his long-term use of neighbouring land for grazing was sufficient to disrupt Waka Kotahi’s plans to develop a bypass around Mt Messenger.
The Pascoe family has farmed in Mangapepeke Valley for nearly seventy years. They object to construction of a Mt Messenger bypass through the valley, realigning part of the state highway running between Hamilton and New Plymouth. Part of Pascoes land has been compulsorily acquired under the Public Works Act for road construction.
The High Court was told the Pascoes had grazing rights over about 3.2 hectares of neighbouring land from the 1950s. In 1985, the Minister of Forests issued the Pascoes a formal licence, allowing grazing for a six year period expiring in 1991 at a cost of $50 per year. Subsequently, this land came under control of Department of Conservation. The Pascoes were offered the opportunity to continue grazing under a Conservation Act concession. They did not take up the offer. With the earlier licence having expired, the Pascoes were at law trespassing by continuing to use the land for grazing.
Ownership of the land passed to Ngati Tama in 2003 as part of its Treaty settlement, negotiated with government as compensation for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. At the time, it was recognised that the Pascoes were exercising informal grazing rights over 3.2 hectares of the land. The Pascoes had long since stopped paying any $50 annual fee.
Justice Grice said the Pascoes had no legally enforceable right to graze stock on the land. At best, they had informal permission to use the land, permission which had been revoked by Ngati Tama in 2019 when it gave formal notice that grazing rights were at an end.
The Pascoes’s request for a High Court injunction preventing Waka Kotahi from blocking their continued access for grazing was refused by Justice Grice.
Pascoe v. Ngati Tama Custodian Trustee Ltd – High Court (17.04.23)
23.046