THE BEAUTIFUL WEST.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 17

THE BEAUTIFUL WEST.

The Romance of Westland." By A. J; Harrop, M.A., Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs.

Active as the Tourist Department may be, and anxious as. the Government of the Dominion certainly seems to make New Zealand's unique beauties of scenery known abroad; the impression evidently exists among our -own people that not quite enough is done to make them better acquainted with the wonders of this, their Homeland. Travelling in New Zealand is undoubtedly, too expensive for the great majority of the people to go yery far from their home towns, or \f °J? the main TaU and steamer lines. Mr. Harrop, in this work, although dealing more with the historical side of his subject, has been actuated by the feeling that the glories of its forest and mountain scenery, should be made more accessible to the people of New Zealand than they are. He opens his history with a fine description of the sunsets of the west, and remarks of Wcstland:—"The luxuriance of its forests, and the splendour of its mountains, form a glorious setting for lovely lakes and a multitude of mountain streams. The many . evidences of ice action and striking differences of rock texture are a source of interest to geologists, while the students of botany are inevitably attracted by the many varieties of alpine mosses, flowers, and shrubs." "Then he goes on to tell of the curious avifauna; and of the wonderful southern alps and' the glaciers and ice-fields. But for the greater part of the people of New Zealand these will never be seen except by photographs, at. best an unsatisfactory substitute for seeing things with the natural eye. .. But the highly interesting and colourful history of Westland that is the chief concern of.the author. Of that, especially the old gold diggings days, he writes authoritatively and well. They were "brave days of old" indeed for New Zealand. Gold, however, has given place to butter and wool, and the vast agricultural resources of the Coast, are only now beginning to be tapped. With the opening, of the Midland Bailway they will be greatly increased. ; Nothing, can stop them. At the same time the West Cdart. ought to be the playground of the city, dwellers of the Dominions; and it may be in time when : the great attractions it has to offer, far exceeding those of Switzerland, are managed as to accommodation and tariff with Swiss business enterprise and catering efficiency.

Mr. Harrop has done good service as historian of the West Coast, and he is convincing in his argument that "Enterprise will secure for Westland what enterprise secured for Westland's pioneers—a reward whose richness astonished the world." The book is fully illustrated, showing what "the Coast" was in its early days. It is also well indexed, and it should greatly please the council, of the British and Intercolonial Exhibition that is to be opened at Hokitika next month.