Roading Law as it Applies to Unformed Roads

Hayes, B. E.

Walking Access, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

2007

MAF

www.walkingaccess.govt.nz

A follow-up report was also published in 2007 and is available here.

In New Zealand almost all roads when first legally constituted were unformed. This was inevitable in a pioneering society where the settlers’ demand for services, surveying, and access and title to land outstripped the capacity of both central government and the provincial governments to provide for these needs.

In the era of provincial government (1854–1876) the demand for land was such that the standards originally set for settlement, which were meagre enough, had to be loosened further so that settlement would not be held back. Crown land was subdivided on paper plans rather than plans of survey executed on the ground. A system of sale before survey was introduced. And, as most of the good land was taken up by the settlers, paper roads rather than surveyed roads laid out on the ground were also permitted as part of the subdivisional explosion. It is not surprising that from an historical perspective, the law on formed and unformed roads is in material respects the same law.

Keywords:

Roads, Roading, Law, Tracks, Access. Highway, Right of way

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July 12, 2012

July 12, 2012