ALPINE FACILITIES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21708, 15 February 1936, Page 22

ALPINE FACILITIES

10 IH BDITOB 07 TBI FXBBB. Sir,—lt is always interesting to read the views-of visitors to the Dominion. In your issue of February 10, Mt Hartley W. Whyte made some very complimentary remarks about our alpine country and his comments on the fine peaks and great field for the sport are most true. However, like those of so many other visitors, his criticisms of our shortcomings do not give us any more information than we New Zealand climbers already possess He compares our hut accommodation with that of Switzerland and suggests we should have more—a suggestion we fully . endorse, provided someone will find the money! Mr Whyte evidently overlooks that to compare facilities offered in Switzerland with those available in New Zealand is hardly reasonable; the situation and conditions of the two countries are so different. Within 24 hours' travel of Switzerland there is roughly a population of some hundreds of millions, while New Zealand's nearest neighbour is four days away, with a population of about 8,000,000: the comparative cost of reaching Switzerland from her near neighbours is infinitesimal even compared with a visit from Australia to New Zealand. Under these, conditions it naturally pays Swiss authorities, or companies, to provide facilities for tourists such as huts and mountain railways, which in New- Zealand would be a dead loss. As a matter of fact, considering our/ isolation and population, the facilities' in New Zealand are pretty good. /A* to huts, Mr Whyte does not seem' to realise the enormous extent of our Southern Alps—the Tasman district,isj only part of an extensive whole. He] probably does not realise the good work in done by the Canterbury Mountaineering Club and New Zealand Alpine Club by the climbers themselves, which is being j extended as funds permit. We fully realise the need for more huts and the advantages of better facilities, but it is a matter of cost and return.— Yours, etc., AJ>.H. February 13. 1926.