SCENIC RESERVE HUTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 13

SCENIC RESERVE HUTS

MILFORD SOUND ROAD

An objection to the leasing of the huts in -the Eglinton Valley and the Upper Hollyford Canyon on the route of the Milford Sound Road was received from the Southland Tramping Club at the recent meeting of the committee of the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand.

Mr. A. P. Harper advised that he had seen the head of the Tourist Department, Mr. L. J. Schmitt, thereon, that the lease in particular had been granted to Messrs. A. and W. Hamilton for one year only until the Department was ready to take over the district itself; and that the Department was well aware of the danger of commercialisation and was guarding against any control by financial interests inimical to the progress of the reserve. In these circumstances, he considered the position satisfactory. Mr. S. A. Wiren mentioned that the clubs in the southern provinces were very concerned about the future of the Hollyford district. He drew attention to the recent concessions to the Mount Cook Tourist Co. and stressed that the right of clubs to build huts in and traverse the district freely must be maintained.

Mr. G. B. Wilson stated that club members could no longer camp on the Milford Track, and that the control of the Hollyford district on similar lines was as inimical as its leasing to private interests. He queried the true significance of the recent transfer of 50,000 acres of this district to the control of the Tourist Department.

, It was agreed that the matter was an important one which should be taken up by the reserve sub-committee.

The following motion was passed: "This committee is of the opinion that all reserves should be open at all times to tourists, trampers, mountaineers, and the public generally, and urges the Government to 'take steps to ensure that such right of access is maintained, and in particular to prevent the leasing or alienation to private interests of any portion of such reserves, and is further of the opinion that the position with reference to the Eglinton and Hollyford Valley reserves should be watched closely at the present time and be brought immediately before the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Tourist and Publicity, and that the position of the Southern Alps reserves generally should be inquired into as regards existing leases."