MOUNTAIN GUIDES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1932, Page 8

MOUNTAIN GUIDES

A MISTAKEN IDEA

INTERPRETATION OF ACT

The- statement that the Alpine Sport Club in Auckland has been legally ad« vised that the Mountain Guides Act opens the door to a prohibition oli guideless climbing was referred to-day^ to Mr. A. P. Harper, president of thai New Zealand Alpine- Club," and the originator of the scheme of licensing guides. Mr. Harper said it had long been realised by experienced Alpine climber* that there was grave danger in allowing men to offer their services -'.s paid) guides unless they were fully 'qualified for the job. "The arguments in. sup* port of this," he said, "are unanswerable. Thus the Government las'i session, passed legislation authorising the issue of licences to men qualified to act as guides and making it an offence for any one to offer his services as a guida for payment unless he held a licence. I cannot understand how anything in the Act can be construed as giving power to prohibit climbing without guides. This would be quite ridiculoup to- attempt, and also impossible to enforce. It would be resisted by every; climber in the country. CLAUSS MISUNDERSTOOD. "In the first place the object of thai Act is denned 'to make provision foe •the licensing of mountain guides and matters incidental thereto.' It cannot be, interpreted to confer any further powers. ,The clause- which is mis* understood gives power to the control-: ling board to prescribe the number oS guides which 'may be* employed on,' any expedition. This obviously means that where any guides are to be em< ployed on a climb the regulation can prescribe in certain cases the minimum. To argue that this gives power to sayj guides must be employed on any climb seems quite unsound, for where no guide is employed the regulation would no* apply, "The reason for this provision "ii that on certain peaks it is necessary, for safety that there should be two men on the rope who are capable o£ leading. It would be unsafe for one guide to conduct a party unless at least one other of that party was already expert; therefore the power is given to say that under certain conditions onaj guide may not act alone. "This really amounts to a, limitation! of the guide's powers under his licence: and does not limit the climbers' rights to go without guides. It will prevent a licensed guide from attempting cer» tain very difficult peaks with too large' or too inexperienced a party. " The whole scheme is based on Swiss practice for the past 50 years. It haa never in any way hampered guideless' work in Switzerland, where there is as much guideless climbing f,s in Ncw\ Zealand. APPLICATION OF ACT, "The Act, in my opinion, only ap» plies to guides or persons wishing to act as guides, and cannot be made to] interfere with amateur climbers. Its conditions ■ 1o not come into operation until a climber asks for a guide and, then it says (a) the guide must hold £ licence; (b) on certain named climbs or under certain conditions one guidsj may not act alone."

Mr. Harper concluded by saying that; any attempt to prohibit guidelesa climbing would be opposed by no onei more keenly than by the promoters of the legislation.