YOUTH HOSTELS ABROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

YOUTH HOSTELS ABROAD

WHY NOT IN NEW ZEALAND? WALKING TOURS POPULAR In many forms there is evidence of a revolt against the tyranny of the machine, says a writer in " Overseas." More and more, men and women are discovering the relief to their harassed lives of a return to simpler standards and " old-fashioned " methods. So it comes, for instance, that in an age when mechanical transport by land and sea and air grows ever more rapid and more comfortable, the number of people, especially young peppje, who choose the slow and arduous progress of walking and cycling increases faster than ever before.

Simplicity and freedom are not the only things that walkers and cyclists find. Health —of mind as well as body, good comradeship and cheapness are also among their qualities. It is all these aims together, and not merely cheapness which the Youth Hostels movement has been created to serve. " A few words about the history of youth hostels. When, last summer, the representatives of 14 nations which have Youth Hostels Associations met in Holland for their first international conference, they were bound one and all to acknowledge their debt to one nation in particular, the pioneers of the idea. In the year 1910, Richard Schirrman, a schoolmaster in a German f)rovincial town, wrote a letter to the ocal newspaper asking for advice and help in a professional matter. Like most masters and mistresses in German schools, he had- been accustomed, for years to take parties of his children for walks, not merely a day's outing, but a tour extending over a week or ten days. They were well able to carry their own packs and prepare their own food: the difficulty came at the end of the day's march —where were they to sleep ? Hitherto they had generally used the only accomodation which most villages can offer—the village inn. The German country inn is often a very delightful place, but it is not suited in various important respects as a home for schoolchildren on holiday. Could the village schools themselves help? Schirrman asked; Would they allow other children passing by, to sleep on straw on a classroom floor? The immediate response to his letter was twofold—the loan of a small house and a gift of money. This was used in 1910 for the earliest youth hostels, the first of thousands to come.

The plan caught on, and spread, and was soon extended to meet the needs of other young people beside suburb children. All sorts of buildings were transformed into youth hostels—barns farmhouses, barracks, disused factories, historic and often half-ruined castles.

The movement has had a profound effect on the health, character and ideas of young Germany. In 1930, it spread to England and Wales, and a Youth Hostels Association was founded there, to be followed rapidly by similar organisations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. By Easter of this year, the membership of the association in England had grown to over 20,000, and it is now possible for young people to walk from Dover to Angelsey. S H One or two other aspects of this movement may be briefly indicated. Its first aim, as given in its, constitution, is " to help all, but especially young people, to a greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside —that marvellous j inheritance which can only be sived from spoliation for our successors by the watchfulness of a strong public opinion now.

In New Zealand daily " hiking " in the summer is already becoming popular. Why should not the idea be extended to walking tours, and why should not some enterprising country folks offer suitable accommodation at reasonable prices to such parties, even if tents had to be used? With its healthy equable climate, its abundance of sunshine and its glorious scenery, no country is more ideally suited to such expeditions than New Zealand. i