CHAIR-LIFT ON RUAPEHU

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 9

CHAIR-LIFT ON RUAPEHU

GOVERNMENT’S AID SOUGHT (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 16. The Government has been asked to make a substantial investment in a company formed to install a chair-lift on Mount Ruapehu. The company has pointed out to the Government that eventually the chair-lift will become State property. The promoter of the company, Mr Walter Haensli, a Swiss-American skier and instructor, has a licence to operate the lift for 21 years, with a right of renewal for 21 years. After that the licence returns to the Tongariro National Park Board.

Mr Haensli said tonight that if the Government’s decision was favourable a Swiss engineer would visit the site next month to complete a survey. The company had permission, he said, to import the equipment, and it was hoped that it could be obtained in Switzerland.

The cost of installing the chair-lift, with refreshment and shelter buildings at the terminal and middle station, was estimated to be about £50,000, said Mr Haensli. The lift would carry about 400 persons an hour, taking about 10 minutes for a passenger to travel almost a mile up the mountain. Mr Haensli hopes to have the work started this summer, and the lift ready for use during the 1954 ski-ing season. Mr Haensli has received the following letter, dated July 6, from Sir Edmund Hillary: “I am most interested to hear that work on the chair-lift is progressing well, as I feel it will give great encouragement to sports on the mountain, as well as providing an opnortunity for ordinary people to do mountain sightseeing, which is not possible without a chair-lift. The greatest benefit will undoubtedly be to skiers, and the sport should gc ahead very quickly with such improved facilities.”