EGMONT NATIONAL PARK.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 June 1927, Page 3

EGMONT NATIONAL PARK.

LOCAL BODIES’ SUBSIDIES.

DEPUTATION TO ASSOCIATION.

A deputation from the Egmont National Park Board yesterday at Eitham waited upon the Taranaki Local Bodies’ Association in support of a request for a continuation of the association’s subsidy. On behalf of deputation, Mr. T. C. List stated that local bodi' had been generous to the park board, contributing £soo' per annum, and if this assistance Avas withheld, h.e feared that the Government subsidy would not be available. The board asked for the same concession tliis year. It had been stated that some of the money contributed--by the southern local bodies had been spent in improving conditions in the north, but this was not so. All the money due to the South Committee from its own district had been sp6nt in that district. The North Committee had been, promised £ISOO by the Public Works Department towards reforming and tar-sealing the north road to the mountain, a Bill is in course of preparation enabling the New Plymouth Borough Council' to make itself responsible for raising the loan of £3OOO for this purpose, and ithie Government '’subsidy would be increased from £ISOO to £3OOO. The maintenance of the north road—from £SOO to £6OO per annum — is a heavy tax on the board'. Due principally to the fact that it was not properly laid down in the first place, it is even now in a very indifferent condition. He referred to tlier'utilit.arian policy of the board in the reafforestation of open lands on the mountain. Over fifty thousand trees had been planted, and this work, he said, would eventually rebound to the benefit of the whole province.

The idea that the North Committee held a dominating influence on the board was entirely wrong. He, as chairman, could assert that all the members had the general interests of the mountain at heart and were at all times prepared to conserve the interests of Taranaki as a whole, and not to' the detriment of certain localities and the benefit of others.

Mr. T. B. Crimp, chairman of the South Committee also addressed the meeting, outlining the status. of his committee and the activities of the board as a whole, but neither he nor Mr. Bayly, secretary of the board, were able to say definitely if Government subsidies were granted on the board’s expenditure. Subsidies granted by the local bodies would be in ratio to the capital value. In reply to Mr. C. E. McGuinness, the board’s secretary stated that £167 had been paid in the north, £172 (less £BO carried from 1925-6) in the south, £55 and £B9 (donations) in the east and £3l in the west, an approximate total of £SOO, the amount the board claimed to have obtained from the On the retireent of the deputation, a discussion ensued. Mr. J. B. Murdoch said that after payment of the subsidy of £3OO for road construction in the north, it appeared to him that the Government might have no money for Egmont for some years to come, lie contended that the subsidy should be apportioned to 'the different committees.

Mr. A. Gamlin held that for years the north had reaped the greater benefits of Governments subsidies.

Mr. Long said the trouble would eon tinue until the north: and south managed their -own affairs. Legislation, however, was necessary before any change could be made. The chairman (Mr. J. S. Connett) said that what was done by the North Committee would materially benefit all the committees and the province generally. Mr. E. A. Pac-ey moved that the local bodies be recommended to vote subsidies as in the past. The motion was carried.