ALPINE CLUBS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20342, 15 September 1931, Page 11

ALPINE CLUBS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE PRESS Sir, —Jn Friday's issue of The Press I read a letter by Mr John Patrick, who is probably keen on the mountains, but it is apparent that he is woefully ignorant of mountaineering affairs. He complains of undue publicity being given to these matters recently, then adds to'the deluge. In any case, closer co-operation between the various alpine interests will not alleviate this trouble. _. Christchurch has climbers who are members of the Canterbury Winter Sports Club, tho Christchurch Ski Club, the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, and the New Zealand Alpine Club do not complain qf futile overlapping of their various activities. Mr Patrick expresses the opinion that the various organisations should join forces and hero it might bo explained that there.

is already a Federation of Mountain Clubs duly constituted, with a membership of about four thousand, of whom- about three thousand five hundred are in the North Island. This did not prevent the recent trouble on Mt. Ruapehu, nor keep down the excessive publicity given to that occurrence. The Federation is probably the "scheme" to which Mr Patrick refers, and which ho states is working excellently. though he makes it appear as if the New Zealand Alpine Club were that "Dominion-wide organisation." The New Zealand Alpine' Club is composed. of men who have gained alpina honours in the various branches of mountaineering, l;iit it does not concern itself with the numerous affairs of any other club whatsoever. It lives in serene complacency upon the lofty pedestal of past achievement, solitary and aloof but does nothing; in fact, until a very recent date, it had become moribund With all respect to Mr Patrick it is obvious that he, probably in perfect innocence', is merely "tramping steps" for someone behind, which is proved by tne ingenuous follow-up of "A.J.S.'' iii Saturday's edition. He, by the way, must be-'young and inexperienced as a mountaineer surely.' otherwise he could not be guilty of such an inexcusable impertinence as to drag the business of my club into the correspondence column of a newspaper.—Yours, etc., C. J. THORNTON, Hon. Secretary, Canterbury Mountaineering and Tramping Club (Inc.). September 14th, 1931.