TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19700, 29 January 1926, Page 2

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK.

ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. THE HEATHER CONTROVERSY. The control of plant and animal life on the Tongariro National Park was tho subject of an interesting report by the representatives of the New Zealand Institute at the meeting of the board of governors of that body yesterday. The report states that two decisions of the Tongariro National Park Board are of special interest to tho New Zealand Institute as they may be fraught with considerable bearing on the plant and animal life in the park. The board has now definitely decided not to permit anyone to introduce exotic plants or animals without express permission from the board, and it has requested those acclimatisation societies which have been permitted to liberate introduced birds to free thorn as far from the park as possible. The board has decided to cut up a small area on the margin of the park into small sections that will be leased to private individuals. The board has not yet definitely decided on the site on Which the hostel should be built, though it has restricted the possibilities to the stretch beween the present Whakapapa huts and the bridge near toe Haunted Whare. Th© board has carried a resolution that in its opinion the heather should be eradicated. The president (Dr P. Marshall) remarked that the report was as satisfactory as could be expected. He added that the decision to eradicate the heather had been gained only after a great deal of discussion, and as a matter of foot it had been carried only by a majority of one. Even now there was a move to nave the resolution rescinded, and monetary pressure was being brought to boar for this purpose. The Bruce Trust, •which had hitherto made an anpual contibution of £looo‘to th© park, had refused to contribute anything further, and had signified its intention of maintaining this attitude a® long as the resolution existed. The report was adopted.