MOUNT COOK.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12177, 25 April 1905, Page 10

MOUNT COOK.

FACILITATING TOURIST TRAFFIC. It is scarcely necessary at this time of day, writes "A Recent Visitor" to the "New Zealand Times," to expatiate upon th© wonders of the Mount Cook region. The time has come, however, for asking what is to be its future. Hero we have tho remnant of ono of tho most stupendous glacial systems of any age. What is left of it is by comparison wiUh what once was as may be seen in the fine series of maps constructed out of the evidence of the past by the late Sir Julius yon Haast —a mere nothing. But what is still left to us is greater than anything in the Swiss Alps, which annually attract their thousands to the centre of the alpine region, with the consequent expenditure of large sums of money, in various ways, to the great benefit of the country. The annual volume of Mount Cook tourist traffic does not exceed one hundred souls, so that comparison in the financial line is out of all question. Yet the verdict of every competent mountaineer who has seen the two systems, is in favour of tho attractiveness of th© New Zealand system. There is nothing in Switzerland to compare with tho T asm an glacier in extent, or in the number of first-class peaks bordering its edges; nothing to approach tho Hochstefter io© fall with its glittering mass of four thousand feet of tumbling ice cascade, pouring out of tho mountain sid© for a whole mile in width; nothing like th© extent of th© Murchison; nothing finer than 'the majesty of Sefton; nothing so unique as the combination of forest and glacier which is to bo seen on tho western slopes of the magnificent ice region of New Zealand. There are many enthusiasts who are never tired of advocating schemes for augmenting the volume of the tourist, traffic. But they are for the most part | impracticable. At the head of tho wild division 6tands the proposal mad© by j Sir William Steward for the erection of some -sort of aerial railway over the Tasman, the bridging of which is absolutely beyond the reach of anything within practical achievement. But something might be don© to popularise the great scenic resort among our own travellers, even if wo cannot yet attract the European. Tho fact which has to be altered to this end is that it takes two days to get from Fairlio to tho Hermitage. Take th© four days' travel thus required, plus th© two half-days to and fro between Timaru and Fairlie, and there is not much left of a week's holiday. Why not try th© motor car? If the Te Kapo river were only bridged—and this river is not at all formidable to the bridge-builder—there would be a straight run for a motor service from Burkes Pass to Lake Pukaki, which with the cars of to-day easily could bo performed in some three hours' time. A ferry boat of the pattern -so familiar in Sydney would take the cam over the and if the creefcs on the way to the Hermitage wero bridged, the run to the Hermitage oould be accomplished with ease from Fairlie in a single day. That would at least double the traffic right off. Thero are, moreover, other things— side-shows, as it were—which might be added. For example, all the tourists complain that they never get a view of any of the great peaks of tho Alpine chain until they get to the end of the dreary drive of two days through the tussocks of the Mackenzie Country. But all the while there is a magnificent view of all these peaks waiting for the traveller who is brave enough to walk up into the heights above Burkes Pass, about fifteen hundred feet. Mount Cook reveals about three-quarters of his huge bulk in all its glittering splendour; Sefton is on one side and on the other Tasman with tbe Silver Horn glistening, Se-eley, Haidinger, and others filling the magnificent line. The ascent is easy to the low peak whence all these splendours are visible—so easy that a very small expenditure would securo a bridle track which would make tho view accessible to every tourist. The excursion would brighten th© journey through tho Mackenzie Country, and by so much increase th© attractions of th© Mount Cook tour.