HIKING YOUR WAY TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

HIKING YOUR WAY TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS

A MOVEMENT DEDICATED TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS AN TO BETTER HUMAN FELLOWSHIP.

In Victorian times a shocked community would have raised its hands in horror at the bare suggestion of a young girl rambling alone along a damp English countryside The young people of that period were nurtured and sheltered, and the restrictions governing their mode of life severe. Two generations later, it was considered highly improper for a young lady to travel alone in a London bus. To-day new conventions govern society; the boys and girls of 1935 enjoy a freedom unknown to the young folk o any earlier generation. They tramp in the rain and the wind and the sunshine; they explore mountains and moorlands and hills; hey set out off the beaten trail with tent and rucsack and cooking gear, and pitch camp where and when they will. This freedom has given rise on the Continent to the formation of the Youth Hostel movement—a movement which ha» in very recent years been adopted by Britain and the States, and to a lesser degree by New Zealand.

BECAUSE to-day a great percentage of the young people enjoy life out of doors —because they are sound and. healthy and love the open spaces—bccause they like getting up at 6 in the morning, tramping the hills and the valleys, and tumbling healthily tired into a bunk at night—because of all this the Youtli movement came into being on the Continent. The founder of the movement was Richard Sehirrmann, ana it was due to his efforts that a chain of hostels linked the beauty spots of Germany. The object of the movement was to help all, but especially voun" people, to a greater knowledge, care and love of their, country,..ana to promote good fellowship between trampcrs of all classes. The hostels, scattered about the countryside, offer comfortable accommodation to vouno. trampcrs at amazingly low rates. On the Continent something like sixpence provides a night's lodging—in England and the States the price is in the vicinity of one shilling. Thus in vacation periods young holiday makers travel the length and breadth of Germany, tramping joyously from village to town, through tlis woodlands' and the forests. "Wander Vogels'' they call_ themselves the "Through Strength to Joy" movement. They are very joyous and carefree, banding themselves into little groups of a dozen or more, and singing as they tramp the roads. The hostels are an adventure in themselves; they are clean and usually picturesque, and travellers from New Zealand tell us that they would do credit to a first-class hotel out here There is a resident staff who supply cheap, wholesome food cooked if it is wanted; more often the trampera have their own food, and there is much fun in the community kitchen prepar ing meals. There are large cosy dormitories and wash rooms, and usually the hostels are packed with a friendly band of trampers, cyclists and canoers out to see the Fatherland.

The wonderful popularity of this movement on the Continent caused it to be

adopted in the United States and later in England. In this last-named country it lias developed into a nation-wide movement, and is being run along lines which even the German founders admit are several steps in advance of their own. Beautiful country homes in some ot -Inland's most picturesque resorts have been purchased and are being converted into hostels, where for one shilling the tramper may have a comfortable bed and the pleasant society of fellow Inkers, ihe association, whose chief aims are really health and happiness for the young, and a deeper love of one's country, has the fundamental^, of a apply equally to him. Friendship between nations is the of aid far-re^Wng. bv rs Already in the South Island most of the popular res,oit* buildihgs — whose heart thrills to the call of the open road, the qong. of the stream and the biifds, the smell of the country In the early morning—these folk may venture forth from north to south, from east to west', and enjoy New Zealand scenery in its many moods. From the far Northland, where the hills shimmer brown and sleepy in the summer sun, to the distant South and the beauties of Milford Track, New Zealand is a land of charm. And, the heritage belongs to every young New Zealander in whose heart responds an answering echo to the call of the great out-of-doors.