TONGARIRO PARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1928, Page 7

TONGARIRO PARK.

CONDITIONS "DISGRACEFUL."

BUILDING PLANS CRITICISED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. The conditions at Tongariro National Park are in some respects disgraceful, said Professor Worley, of Auckland University College, at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute. The professor said the management of the park by the country was lamentable. Except on Bruce Road nothing had been done for years on the tracks in the mountains, and they were rapidly becoming watercourses. The huts which had been provided for campers had evidently heen considered as of a temporary nature, and had been built without any attention whatever to appearance. They were rough inside, and their sanitary arrangements would not be a credit to "a back-country pa. "Now it is proposed to erect a hostel and huts at the park, and there is an excellent opportunity of making a but village and possibly a tent village, which would be a credit to town-planning," tbo professor said. "Yet I find that the huts are to be constructed facing due north, and that their view will be into the tussock land and not into the mountain, which will be behind them. "The erection of huts like those provided by the system of a railway camp or a prison camp iB deplorable. In America such huts form part of the landscape, and pictures of these small villages are very attractive. The huts should be placed round the edge of the forest in a picturesque manner." "The plans of the new huts were prepared by the Government architect, Mr. Webb." said the president of the institute, Mr. B. C. Aston. "I proposed a view of Ruapolm instead of Ngauruhoe. and the chairman of the board promised that windows would be put round the back of the hostel so that tlii« might l>o provided. In front there is the tnscrrk land nnd the view of Ng.niruhoc. The plans were examined, but wo had leave something to the architccts nnd engineers."