FUTURE OF RANGITOTO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22618, 5 January 1937, Page 8

FUTURE OF RANGITOTO

That consternation should have been caused among the shack-owners on Rangitoto by the Ministerial order that their tenure must be ended can be easily understood. There may be a good deal in the official belief that they should not have been allowed there in the first place. Rangitoto is unique, in the proper sense of a badly misused word. A natural endowment, of geological and botanical interest, it is an Auckland possession no other city can exactly match ; and the care taken to preserve its stronglymarked characteristics has not been above reproach. Auckland has destroyed its volcanic landmarks with a supreme disregard of their value. If Rangitoto has not suffered as much as some others, it is because, in the past, inaccessibility and its own rugged nature have largely protected it. Certainly there is little evidence of care or thought for many years. But now that official solicitude has appeared, it comes so late as to threaten hardship, if not positive injustice, to a number of people who have established themselves there in good faith. They have a case. The strongest feature of it is their right to be heard before sentence of banishment is passed. Rangitoto cannot be made a close preserve in the interests of botany. It is too late in the day for that. In fact, it is by no means easy to do what is necessary to preserve the island, to repair the mistakes of the past —particularly in allowing introduced animals to establish themselves there—and to avoid injustice to the small community which feels it has created a permanent tenure in the leased areas. The authorities need to do something better than issue the crude and autocratic order which has been made public.