UNKNOWN

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 17

UNKNOWN

Eof ruts. e years ago ed by North Aide a large S the peaks idTongariro. « Tongariro many hours For campers, [Sfe oT New* In* provided at* for their fire, etc. 6n i * rail from " »ore beau-

finer bush and alpine vegetation. I allude to the country about Arthur's Pass and the Upper Otira Valley. An excellent road runs through it, and the frequent and admirably conducted railway excursions of the last two years have made perhaps thousands of people acquainted with it. Yet as far as care of the bcuutiful surroundings goes it might be a "no man's land." Truo, there is a notice or two on telephone pies regarding damage by fires. Luckily in that moist climate there is not much danger of that. But there seems no restriction whatever on the wholesale removal of plants and ferns, and I am told that in the Pass near "the road they arc rapidly disappearing. On a recent Sunday in Otira excursionists were tearing up ferns even by the wayside, men and women carrying armloads. No one by this, as the ferns, used to a damp climate, will not grow in any other. And it is not what is removed, but what is destroyed. I saw the track to a bush gully marked by dead roots of "todca superba," perhaps the choicest and most beautiful of Now Zealand ferns. Docs not this point to tho need for our members of Parliament and local authorities to bestir themselves, and to induce the Government to declare this wonderful stretch of country a National ParkrV Then we might hope to see a caretaker's hut on the higher part of the Pass •before tho descent to Otira. (I am told that close by a track is now being cut for tho benefit of climbers going up Mt. Rolleston.) The Government might then be further induced to build a few huts in different places as at Tongariro. The caretaker's work should beto prevent tho destruction of birds and plants, and also there is an ever-in-creasing danger of fire, owing to the large numbers who now walk the Pass. A few dry days and A strong wind and the growth of the mountain sides would bo reduced to ashes, as I saw had befallen the most beautiful part of tho Hooker Valley a few years ago. Why should we wait till the chief attractions of the Pass are gone before some step is taken to preserve them? In conclusion I can only hope that others will take the matter up —perhaps an association formed—that shortly the South-Island, too, may possess its National Park, where future generations besides ourselves mar en-joy-the glorious air and alpine peaks with their wealth of flowers •till unspoilt.—Yours, etc., MARGARET O. STODDART. Hackthorne road, February 11th.