NATIONAL PARKS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 6

NATIONAL PARKS

QUESTION-Of FINANCE (By Telegraph.—Press . Association) -■ STRATFORD, 24th May. The Hon. A. D. M'Leod, Minister of 'Lands, arrived here this morning, and after a trip to the Mountain House conferred with Reform Party .delegates from the district. After lunch Mr. M'Leod received a deputation from the Egmont National Park Board, supported by representatives of local bodies and local organisations. The deputation asked for the reinstatement of the grant made in,1920 for metalling.the road to the Mountain House. The Minister Baid he could not promise that a free grant would be made. He thought the finance of the national park boards should be placed on a sound basis. He did not desire to do away with local effort, but a system should be instituted under which park boards would know definitely what subsidy would be granted on money raised by local efforts. He.would confer with the Minister of P.ublie Works. Work on the road had been suspended since 1921 owing to financial stringency, and the vote placed,on the Estimates again in 1925, but he knew the present difficulties of the Minister of Works, and perhaps they were greater even than in 1921 or 1925. However, the deputation's request had his warmest sympathy.