TONGARIRO PARK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1718, 8 January 1920, Page 2

TONGARIRO PARK.

PROVISION FOR VISITORS.

ERECTION OF DOUBLE HUT

The erection of the Tourist Department's double hut near the headwaters of the Whakapapanui stream on the Tongariro National Park, which will contain accommodation for about 20 visitors to the park, is now proceed ing. The cost of the erection of the but was provided for by a Government grant of £3OO. The work was delayed owing to the recent curtailment of the railway time-table making it impossible to get the timber and other material on to the ground. Since the normal timetable was restored the material has been taken by rail to Waimarino, and then transported to the site of the building—a distance of 11 or 12 miles—by bullock teams. It is expected that the building will be ready for occupation before the end of the present month. The building will provide accommodation for about eigbt women and about twelve men. r In addition to the vote for the building, there is a further vote of £2OO for the preliminary reading work from the main road to the site of the hut, and this work also has been put in hand by Mr Salt. An effort will be made to obtain for reading purposes a portion of another vote of a large sum that appeared on last year's estimates for the development of' the park, and if this effort is successful the money will be expended on further improving the access to the hut. ' One object for which the vote in question is intended is the erection of a hut on the summit of Tongariro in the vicinity of the Blue Lake. The popularity of the park as a tourist resort, despite the present lack of adequate accommodation, is demonstrated by the fact that during the recent holiday period there were nearly thirty persons camping in the vicinity of the "haunted whare," wbicb is only aliput three miles from the site of the new hut. The members of the Ski Club, who are taking an active part in the movement for the development ot this great pleasure resort, express their confidence that when up-to-date accommodation is provided in the park it will attract a very large number of visitors from all pai ts of the Dominion.—Auckland Herald.