Hall And Museum For Arthur’s Pass Proposed

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28450, 3 December 1957, Page 7

Hall And Museum For Arthur’s Pass Proposed

Approval for the erection of an alpine hall and museum at Arthur’s Pass will be sought next week-end when the Arthur’s Pass National Park Board meets the National Parks Authority in a three-day inspection of proposed developments. Working plans are now being prepared for the design of Mr Paul Pascoe to provide a hall, gallery, and offices of 1946 square feet and a museum of 990 square feet. It is envisaged that the hall (seating 100) would be used for lectures, community, activities, and perhaps dancing and that the museum would contain a relief map of the Arthur’s Pass National Park, a reference library, maps, and specimen collections of the rocks, plants, insects, birds, and small animals of the mountain regions. have expressed hopes that some of Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest relics might be deposited in the museum and there will be space for outdoor exhibits, such as a coach from the days when this was the only road to the West Coast.

The plan for this building is in the shape of a big H with the main entrance into the cross section, where there win be a foyer, with an exterior gallery above. To the rear will be a kitchen off the hall and a workroom off the museum. The museum and the hall will be in the uprights of the H—-each nearly 40ft long and 25f* wide. With the base walls formed of river boulders and considerable areas in glass above this, the building will (in some ways) resemble the Arthur’s Pass chapel. First Visit Arthur’s Pass is the only one of the eight national parks which the National Parks Authority has not yet visited. During the weekend members will be shown past developments, projects in hand, and proposals for the future. After their arrival in Christchurch on Saturday morning, members of the Authority will drive to the mountains, have a picnic lunch at Andrews stream, and (at the Bealey entrance to the park) inspect the Waiirikariri track, the skating pond, and the proposed shelter. In tne evening at Arthur’s Pass a formal meeting will be held and the visitors will be shown films and slides of the region. Before 9 a.m. on Sunday, the party will drive to Aickens to inspect signs and the youth hostel, have lunch on the summit of the pass, and then inspect the access to Temple basin, huts, and further developments proposed. After dinner in Arthur’s Pass, the visitors will attend the evening service in the mountain chapel. The Arthur’s Pass township, the museum site, and other points in the area will be inspected on Monday morning before the party returns to Christchurch. This will be no formal visit. The National Parks Authority has bpen asked to bring their own bed linen, heavy boots, and waterproof clothing, just like many other visitors to Arthur’s Pass. Arthur's Pass National Park now contains 239,151 acres—about 66,000 acres in Westland and about 173,000 acres in Canterbury. About 17,000 acres in the Otira valley and about 150,000 acres in the Waimakariri headwaters were reserved for national park purposes (at the suggestion of Dr. Leonard Cockayne) in 1901 and formed the nucleus ot the park formed in 1928. In notes for the Authority, the Arthur’s Pass board says that public interest is no longer confined to the environs of the pass but extends over the whole area. Work of Board

The Arthur’s Pass National Park Board will report that work is in hand on conveniences in the township and at the Temple Basin ski grounds, on the Temple Basin access track, on a skating pond and shelter at Klondyk'e corner, on the Bridal Veil track, and that it is preparing working plans for the museum building, a handbook on the park, a pamphlet for excursionists, and a booklet of its by-laws.

In its first “five-year plan” from 1954, the board will report the completion of a utility-vehicle track to the Bluffs, below Temple Basin? wide erection of signs, the Edwards Valley hut finished. Waimakariri tracks reinstated, a bivouac erected in the Upper Rolleston river valley, and many other improvements. An alpine garden will be estab-

lished when the deviation in the road into the township is finished, and preparation of accurate maps is awaiting aerial photography. Among the items to be considered for the next five-year plan are a new hut in Crow valley, a wire bridge across the White river, formation of a nature trail and natural rock gardens, and provision of camping areas. The board has asked for special discussion on (1) the museum project; (2) whether the Christchurch Ski Club’s new tow qualifies for subsidy; (3) extension of the vehicle track to Temple Basin; (4) the demand for building sections and the possible development of sites near Bruce stream; (5) finance for capital development; (6) and possible extensions in boundaries of the park.