NATIONAL PARKS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 16, 18 July 1925, Page 6

NATIONAL PARKS

Kecent discussions regarding the control of Tongariro National Park have, we believe, directed public attention to,a subject of great and increasing importance in New Zealand. Wonderfully endowed as this Dominion is with natural beauties and facilities for open-air recreation, it must not be thought that what we have can be maintained without effort or interest. Fire and the axe have destroyed much, and we must be vigilant lest they or other destructive agents invade the recreational areas. Yesterday we ! published extracts from an article I by-an. American authority as to the menace of private lands within national parks and the danger arising from the introduction of exotic plant and animal life. Today we print elsewhere a description of the Canadian National Parks. Canada, though possessing almost boundless forest, lake, and mountain areas, has yet deemed it necessary to take protective measur.es; and her national parks I now cover an area of 10,000 square miles. Several of these parks are conveniently placed on great railway routes so that full use may be made of the recreational facilities they afford. Within the boundaries of the parks, also, excellent accommodation may be obtained, I or, for a small fee, parties may I take their gear and camp. The writer refers also to the disposal of building lota; but' this, though ! warranted perhaps in the great parks of Canada, is not a measure which should be copied in New Zealand. The townships at Banff and Lake Louise have no parellel in Tongariro Park, which is much smaller in area and is surrounded by private land which may be used for settlement. In other respects, however, we may well learn from Canada the wisdom of making early and ample provision for recreation in the wild open lands.