The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1953. Safety in the Mountains

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1953. Safety in the Mountains

Early this year the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Bodkin) seemed determined upon an attempt to deal by legislation and regulation with the difficult problem of accidents in the mountains. Deeply perturbed by a double tragedy in the Mount

Aspiring district—the loss of two climbers and the death of an airman taking part in the aerial search for the missing men—Mr Bodkin declared that certain areas should be declared dangerous country into which only competent mountaineers and trampers should be allowed to go by permit or licence. A few days later the famous British mountaineer, Mr Geoffrey Winthrop Young, who (was then visiting New Zealand, lent ■the weight of his opinion to those (among them “The Press”) who had disagreed with Mr Bodkin’s belief in the efficacy of legislative action. Mr Young pointed out that many similar efforts had been made in other countries faced with precisely the same problem, and that all had failed lamentably. It is satisfactory to find in the addresses of Mr Bodkin and others at the J inaugural meeting of a safety s campaign committee in Wellington on Thursday assurance that the

Government has decided, after all, to put its faith in education rather than regulation. Forbidden country and forbidden pursuits have an irresistible attraction; and no-one can doubt that any kind of interdice tion would result in trampers and climbers entering the dangerous areas by stealth. This, above all, is what any programme to promote safety in the mountains should seek to avoid. Indeed, the first object of the campaign should be to ensure, k eventually, that no-one goes, or ' wants to go, into danger areas—which cannot be defined as narrowly as Mr Bodkin seemed to think when he named Mount Egmont, Mount Ruapehu, and Arthur’s Pass—withi out the knowledge and approval of t some competent organisation such as

a mountaineering or tramping club. This will not easily be achieved, for many persons dislike even the measure of control which membership of a club imposes; and there can be no question of compulsion here, either. But it should be possible, by sustained and sensible publicity, especially in the schools, to make New Zealanders more fully aware 1 of the dangers and the responsibili--1 ties of their great heritage in the mountain playgrounds. > Young persons are taking to tramping and mountaineering in increasing numbers. They should be encouraged to join j clubs in which they will get technij cal instruction, practical experience ) under the tutelage of competent ; persons, and, perhaps most important j of all, a sensible and realistic out--5 look upon their sport. Intrinsically, j mountaineering is more dangerous than most sports; but nearly all its perils are perils only to the ignorant 1 or the foolhardy. The mountain * clubs make it their business to teach > their members a healthy respect for * the dangers of snow and ice, of stone-fall, and of flooded river. This respect is the essential complement of the love of mountains, which should be as natural to New Zealanders as the love of the sea; and the one is no more likely than the other to be implanted in the human 8 mind by regulation. Much can be done by the missionary zeal of the mountain clubs and their members; but it would be well to bear in * mind Mr Geoffrey Winthrop Young’s

warning that there is no complete or final solution of the problem of safety in the mountains. Accidents will still happen. In this country, at least, they should not be as numerous as they have been in recent years.