MOUNT EGMONT. TO THE EDITOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7399, 27 February 1902, Page 2

MOUNT EGMONT. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — I have perused with no inconsiderable amount of pleasure the two articles recently published in >our paper, especially aB after a trip to the mountain last week I have realised, as never before, its worth to the district as a holiday and health resort, and Us value as an asset to the colony. The more frequently I visit this magnificent and unique pile, the more deeply am I impressed with its grandeur, its endless variety of scenery, and its wealth of vegetation. Where in New Zealand would a botanist find more scope for his researches than here ? From the edge of the reserve fully 2,000 miles of the earth's surface along the meridian must be represented in the vegetable world. Your correspondent was happy in his use of • a term when he used the word " indescribable " regarding the forest reserve of the mountain, for neither pen nor brush can ever do justice to the succession of sylvan scenes which vary with every turn of the track. Everyone is impressed with the magnificence of the giant ratas, and involuntary exclamations of delight and admiration escape the traveller as he observes the abundance of the graceful epiphytes clothing every tree, or the beauty and delicacy of the flowers which border the whole length of the way. As a health resort, too, its value is unquestionable, and yet with all this, though within 16 miles of one of the principal railway lines of the colony, the road to the accommodation house has never been completed, and the mountain remains to this day practically inaccessible to the general public, and consequently unknown outside of our own district. How it is that a Government alive to the value of the country's scenery as an attraction to wealthy travellers from all parts of the world, how it is that such a Government can let such a mountain remain shut up for the sake of four miles of road is an anomaly that can only be accounted for by the explanation that as yet Ministers are in ignorance of its value. It seems, too, that even the local County Council at Stratford cannot be roused to a sense of its duty towards the public to complete the 30 chains of road on the Upper Manaia Road, or at least to spend a pound or two in making tho road passable for wheel traffic. However, instead of hopelessly waiting for a Government only half conscious of its duty, or for a Council callous to (he public need, to complete the track, I would respectfully suggest, sir, that the public of this large and wealthy district paid sufficient funds by subscription to fill in the mud holes of the first mile, and thus bring passengers within reasonable walking distance of tho mountain house, or undertake to do the work by I voluntary labour. — I am, etc.,