OPPOSED TO ROADING IN TARARUAS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 6

OPPOSED TO ROADING IN TARARUAS

Maiiawatu Tramping Club A proposal emanating from the Wellington Centennial Memorial Committee that the Tararua Range be created a national park to commemorate the centenary of the Wellington province and to open it up by making roads through it was considered at a special meeting recently of the Manawatu Tramping Club committee. It was the opinion of the meeting that, ‘ while the first part, of the proposals is welcomed, the second part is viewed with much concern by those interested in the preservation of the native flora and fauna.”

The committee expressed the view that, while roads leading to the reserve are highly desirable to give access to it to a wide public, it was not in the best ultimate interest of the public to make roads of any kind within the reserve. Most places of interest to the public, such as Mount Holdsworth and Mount Hector, were only four hours’ walk distant from the bush edge, so that there was no real call for roads into the reserve.

“The making of roads is viewed as a step toward destruction of the native wild life,” the committee’s report continued. “They allow light to reach the ground freely which would permit almost unchecked invasion by introduced plants, of which the Tararuas are remarkably free at present. Further, roads in the hilly country necessitate cutting into the hillsides, and this engenders slips which are perpetuated by cleaning the road, and such slips would become subject to invasion by weeds from the roadsides. No less objectionable is the allowing of horses into the reserve, as these animals are excellent agents for the dispersal of Mveds.”