N.Z. Delegate Urges Nationalisation of Thermal Regions
(P.A.) AUCKLAND, Feb. 9. A proposal that the Governments of Pacific countries should acquire all thermal areas and control and develop them as national parks was put before the vulcanology section of the geology division of the Pacific science congress.
Moving that the Pacific science council should make representations in this direction, Mr. S. 11. Wilson, of the Dominion Laboratory, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, pointed out the rarity of thermal regions and their scientific interest and their tourist value. v "Good Many Neglected”
“Particularly in New Zealand, these areas are of very great interest and yet are in very divided ownership, and a good many of them have been neglected,” said Mr. Wilson.
The lake on White Island had been destroyed in a futile attempt to get sulphur, he added. The Rotokawa area was greatly neglected. Tokaanu was very poorly looked after, the very interesting mud volcanoes there being in bad condition while other areas were inaccessible. Great as was the possibility of using hot water and steam from the areas he thought that the tourist attraction asset would be still more valuable if they were properly developed in a national park system, and their features explained to visitors in an interested and scientific manner. See Areas Before Voting
He suggested that it would be best if delegates voted on the motion at Christchurch after they had seen the state of the areas for themselves. Dr. P. E. Cloud, United States, commented that it was not the function of such an international council to advise the Government of New Zealand on the disposition of its territories. Another speaker said that while he agreed that should be better control of the thermal areas he did not agree that the only way to do it was by nationalisation.
Further discussion was left until the delegates reassembled at Christchurch.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19490210.2.94
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22867, 10 February 1949, Page 6
Word Count
315N.Z. Delegate Urges Nationalisation of Thermal Regions Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22867, 10 February 1949, Page 6
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.