DOMINION SCENERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22025, 4 February 1935, Page 6

DOMINION SCENERY

'ADMIRATION BY VISITOR "MATERIAL FOR MAGAZINE MANY FINE PHOTOGRAPHS Hardly a tourist comes to New Zealand without sortie word of praise for at least those scenes of mountain or coast which have impressed him most. Such praise is gratifying; but there is a peculiar value in praise from Mr. W. R. Moore, a staff photographer of the National Geographic Magazine, whose eye> has been trained to the appreciation of scenio values in many parts of the world. Mr. Moore, who arrived at Auckland some weeks age, and has since been touring the Dominion, is collecting material, both literary and photographic, for an illustrated article for the magazine. His intention is to produce an article which will give a comprehensive idea of the Dominion; and while he is paying particular attention to places of unusual scenic interest, he wishes to leave untouched no aspect which may hslp to show his readers what the country is really like. Mr. Moore has already travelled over the greater part of the North and South Islands, haying covered a distance of more than 2000 miles. I find New Zealand interesting chiefly because of its contrasts," Mr. Moore remarked to a Dominion reporter in .Wellington. "It seems a hackneyed phrase to use, 'but it is actually true for your country—:it is a hand of paradox. Coming over from the West Coast to Cliristciaurch 1 saw the change from the everlasting snows to seraitropical bush; and there is the contrast between the heavily bushed West Coast and the sunny plains on this side of the mountains." Mr. Moore on Tuesday last was at Mount Cook, • where he spent what he described as " the most glorious day in my life." "It is not the first time I have seen mountains," he said, " as I have been in the Andes and the Himalayas; but I can assure you that for sheer rugged beauty the Southern Alps are unsurpassed. I began photographing Mount Cook from about 45 miles away, and took other views of it right up to the foot of the mountain. I had a camera in my hand i'rom half past eight in the morning until after six o'clock at night." Mr. Mcore has not yet finished his tour of the North Island, and he will return shortly to visit districts omitted earlier. He ha,s been to the Waitomo Caves, however, and the glowworm cave, he said, was the loveliest wonder of the kind ho had ever seen. He could not frnd words to describe it adequately, but he had never seen anything so fascinating. Mr. Moore sa id that he was, personally, just as imsterested. in the gold dredges he had seen on the West Coast and the dairying and wheat-growing lands of the Dominion, as in the mountain scenery.. To be able to write an article which would give an idea of the country as a whole, it was necessary to pay attention to every aspect of the life of the people. Anyone: who passed through New Zealand without observing, for instance, the wide farm lands of the Canterbury plains, would be missing something essential to a real appreciation of the country. Mr, Moore has already taken a great many photographs, many of them on coloured plates. Forty of these were taken at Mount Cook.