THE NEW REGIME'

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11422, 19 January 1923, Page 10

THE NEW REGIME'

TONCARIRO NATIONAL PARK BOARD OF MANAGEMENT APPOINTED. UNDER LAST YEAR’S ACT. An interesting statement with re. feronoe to the appointment of a new board of management of the Tonganro National Park, under the amending Act passed last session, was made to a .C 111 ??”- re P™<M>rtstive yesterday bv the Minister for Lands (the Hon. D*. H. Guthrie). The genesis of the Tongariro National Park, said the Minister, was an area of 6308 acres, comprising barren mountain tops, which was origihally set asade by the late Hon. To -Heuheu Tukino, chief of the Ngatituwharetoa Tribe, as e reserve. Subsequently there was added to this area by the Government some 55,792 acres of Crown land, making altogether an area of 62,300 acres, which was constituted the Tongariro National Park, Act ox that same passed in 1894. The oonteoQmg body was a special board of trustees con.sis ting of toe Minister for Leads and six others This board administered the park until 1914, when section 64 of the Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies’ Empowering Aot of that year dissolved the board and vested the control of the park in the Tourist and Health Resorts Department, which has administered it until now. Fear some time back there has been a movement to improve the facilities of the park, and offer greater inducements to tow general publio to utilise its varied attractions.

The Act of last session increased toe area of the pork to 145,000 acres, and appointed a board of management consisting of the Minister for Lands, a lineal descendant of Te Heuheu Tukino, the permanent heads of the Lands, Tourist, and State Forest Departments, toe Mayors of Auckland and Wellington, the wnxden of the park, and four other members to be appointed by the Governor-General. These last appointments are about to be made, and toe first meeting of the board will be held at W aimanno on Thursday, January 25th, at which stops will be taken to put the machinery of the Act in working order, and arrange for the development and best utilisation of the pork. “The gentlemen to be appointed comprise Messrs W. H. Field, M.P. (member for Otaki), who is an enthusiastic mountaineer and Bm always taken a keen interest in the development of the 'natural scenic attractions of toe district; Thomas Blyto, schoolmaster, of Ohakune, who has made forty ascents of Ruapehu, and who knows every inch of the park; Alexander Simpson, of Hvmterville, who has given valuable services as trustee in the estate of the late Mr R. C. Bruce, who donated the greater portion of bis wealth for toe encouragement and preservation of the fauna and flora of New Zealand; and William Salt, of Wanganui, president of toe Ski Club, who has done a lot for the park, and has already built temporary huts and put in whole weeks of his time making improvements to the park. The Maori member is Hosm te Heuheu, a grandson of Te Heuheu Tukino. Taken altogether, toe board will he most representative, and is composed of gentlemen who will do their best to develop the park on modem lines.”