THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1919. TONGARIRO PARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1919. TONGARIRO PARK.

The elections are over, Christmas is at hand, there is a relaxation of the tension which has characterised the national life during the past few months, and the thoughts of New Zealanders are turning to the mountains, bush, and beaches which beckon them from near and far. It would be a comedy if it were not also a tragedy that at this time the finest scenery in the Dominion, the greatest natural sanatorium, and the most fascinating playground is closed to the mass of the people— and closed merely for the lack of an unpretentious hostel. The Tongariro National Park is almost bounded by the railway. Lying, &a it does, in the centre of the North Island, it is within convenient distance of the two largest cities of the North Island and of a dozen important towns. At present its accessibility benefits only the leisured holiday-maker, who can provide for his comfort by carrying a large equipment with him. To those who lack time to make such formidable preparations, or who lack the inclination or capacity for primitive adventuring, the National Park is as effectually closed as if it were in Tibet. So little impressed is the Tourist Department with an asset of incomparable value that it has decided against the erection of an accommodation house. Its imagination carries it no farther than a double hut, which may serve a few visitors, but is useless for the. purposes of the many. The cautious Mr. Nosworthy suggests that after a time the hut may be enlarged. Either he does not know the park or he possesses that unfortunate disposition which sailors always associate with an infinitesmal quantity of tar. i .1

There is need for economy in administration, but there is no occasion for a parsimony which is as foolish as if is petty. If the Tourist Department is determined not to lose a few pounds, even for the sakn of unlocking the Tongariro National Park, it might at least be guided by its experience in catering for visitors to - Mount Cook. Even during the war period accommodation has- been severely taxed every summer, and during the coming season the hostels on Mount Cook and Mount Egmont will be insufficient for the stream of holiday-makers. There is every reason to suppose that an accommodation house in the Tongariro National Park would prove even more popular, and it would constitute an important stage on an overland journey which might justly be recommended to tourists as being without peer. If even an elementary attempt were made to attract visitors the park would quickly become a customary link in the tourist itinerary, preceding or following the stay at Botorua. The National Park not only includes three mountains, but it embraces a wide region of bush and tussock, mountain torrents and cascades. There is no tract of the same area in New Zealand possessing the same variety of scenery. There is no comparable area in the world with the same diversity of charm and interest as the country between Lakes Rotorua and Taupo and the Main Trunk railway. Rivers and vast inland seas teeming with fish, geysers and every form of thermal activity, forests of rare beauty, mountains which give a view from ocean to ocean, and an active volcano which can be more easily and safely climbed than almost any other in the world — these are nature's toys in a playground which has only to be better known to attract a constant stream of healthseekers and sight-seers from all parts-of the earth. But it is not solely or even principally for tourists that the Tongariro National Park should be unlocked. Rich as the Dominion is in health resorts, it cannot afford to neglect the greatest of all. The vast majority of New Zealanders live and work by the sea. For them mountain air is the breath of a new vitality. A properly-equipped accommodation house in the National Park would become not only a starting point for those who wished to enjoy climbing and alpine sports, but a popular resort for those who desired a brief rest from the cares of business and wished to find in mountain air and mountain scenery a tonic for body and mind. Allowing for a connecting motor service from the railway, it should be possible for Aucklanders to leave the city in the evening and breakfast next morning on the lower slopes of the mountains. The National Park would thus be within the compass of a week-end holiday. Reasonably controlled and sympathetically administered it would bring the life of the open air very near the crowded streets of Auckland and Wellington. If the corrosive influence of city life is to be combated in New Zealand more successfully than in older lands the State must make it easy for every citizen to get to the heart of nature, and no more practical step could br taken to this end than the popularising of the Tongariro National Park.