YOUTH HOSTELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 191, 13 August 1940, Page 5

YOUTH HOSTELS.

FITNESS CAMPAIGN. MOVEMENT IN VICTORIA. (By Air) MELBOURNE, Aug. 9. The Youth Hostel Scheme, as part of the National Fitness Campaign, is gaining such support in Victoria that it promises to become one of the most important social and recreation movements. Within a year or so, chains of hostels should be opened in the most attractive parts of the bush and coastal areas.

Hostels already have been opened at Windermere, Warrandyte, St. Andrew's North, Kinglake, Christmas Hills, Mount Evelyn, Toolangi, Narbethong, Dromana, Mornington and Healesville, mostly in the near mountains and along the bayside. New 6ites are being considered each week. One is to be opened at Cowes, Phillip Island, and several new circuits should- be available' by the summer. Last week-end 77 people were accommodated at the hostels, and during the summer hundreds of people are expected to take up all available accommodation at the week-ends and during the holidays. Main feature of the scheme, which is under the auspices of the National Fitness Council, is that the hostels should be on planned routes, and about 10 to 15 miles apart—an easy day's walk. i They will provide overnight accommodation at 1/ a night, and hot meals at from 1/3 to 1/6, also cut lunches for the walker to take on his way to the next hostel. Annual membership fee of the Australian' Youth Hostel Association is 5/ for adulta and 2/6 for members under 21 years. Each hostel is in charge of a supervisor, and special arrangements are made for accommodating parties of boys or girls in charge of a full member. Organisers of the scheme in Australia hope that the bands of "youth hostellers" will grow as they have in England and Scotland, in America, and on the Continent of Europe. In the first eight years of its existence the association in England has enrolled 85,000 members, and has been able to erect modern buildings designed specially for hostel accommodation. In England, also, farm houses have been taken over, and the owners of country holiday homes, unable to make frequent visits, have handed them over to the association for several years. The Australian association hopes to develop along similar lines. Already it has established a bicycle circuit on the Mornington Peninsula, with hostels at convenient distances. Most attractive feature of the whole scheme is that people can have a weekend in the country for about 6/ or less. The organisers believe that the war and its aftermath will stimulate the desire of people for simpler ways of living and i enjoyment.