Steve and Delia Meier, the farmers who’ve been involved in a five year long legal battle with Transpower, the power company that has six transmission lines running through their property, today expressed desire to end the drawn out conflict by agreeing to a meeting.

This came after a fire on their farm on Monday, led to a power outage that affected more than 50,000 households in the North Island. Transpower accused the couple of putting barricades that prevented police and fire services personnel from entering the property after a shelter belt caught fire by one of their transmission lines.

The farmers’ lawyer Paul Casin vehemently denied this claim and insisted on an apology by the company that acknowledged that there had been no ‘barricade or impediment’, asserting that his clients had been unnecessarily vilified by Transpower and were the injured party as the fire that had resulted because of carelessness on the part of the power company had damaged their property. Instead, the responsibility of the incident had been transferred to the couple, with the family firearms being confiscated by the police authorities.

"I have not broken any laws. What have I done to have them confiscated?", said a visibly distressed Mr. Meier.