The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1937. THE WAITAKERE PARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1937. THE WAITAKERE PARK.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that, needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee cam do.

One visit, to the Waitakore Ranges has been sufficient to make the Minister of; Lands, Mr. Langstone, an enthusiastic supporter of the proposal to establish there a national park. Most visitors to the Ranges are similarly impressed bv the beauty of the bush, by its nearness to the city and by the danger that unless the area on which it- .stands is acquired and set aside as a national or a municipal park it will be lost, irretrievably. .Mr. Langstone is anxious to help the movement I to conserve the bush, but lie lias rightly pointed out that Aucklanders themselves have not made up their minds about it, and in consequence there have been put before him not concrete proposals, but "generalities." j Having seen the Waitakeres, Mr. Langstone asked in what better way Auckland could celebrate the Centennial than by having the whole area—or as great, a part of it as proved practicable —acquired as a national park. Certainly no better proposal has been put before the public, and it is unlikely that any will be. Other civic amenities can be_ acquired or constructed at any time, but the opportunity to conserve the Waitakeres will not be open for long; there is evidence that it is diminishing now. The Minister's remarks yesterday suggest that if Auckland decided now to devote a substantial part of its Centennial grant from the Government to the acquisition of an area in the Waitakeres, some of the money might be made available in advance. He made it clear that no special grant will be made by the Government, and, in effect, left it to the Auckland local bodies and the other organisations interested to decide not only what they want, but how much they want it.

The primary need is money, and the responsibility of raising any sum decided upon should not be thrown upon the local bodies alone. Every local body has financial problems which are the legacy of the depression, and every one has to face considerable commitments in respect of the metropolitan drainage scheme. The members chosen by a local body to represent it at a conference such as that which the Mayor is to call do not necessarily have a special interest in the proposal that is to be discussed; some are chosen fieeause of their determination not to have their ratepayers saddled with any further expenditure. These are facts which have to be accepted. But there exists also an ■unorganised body of public support* for the Waitakere park project, and the seryices which it is ready to offer —when given a lead — should be utilised to the full.