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Otago Witness, Issue 3957, 14 January 1930, Page 32

Din ing his visit to Mount Cook. Dr E. Markham Lee. the English pianist, composer, and author, missed the delicious smell of new-mown hay and of pine trees which he experienced on the European Alps, visited by him about 20 times. New Zealand's Alps are wild; but all the lower hills of the European Alps, he explained, are richly cultivated (states the Christchurch Star). Three crops of hay are usually taken evey year up to about 6000 feet, and pine trees grow up to a limit of about 8000 feet. On New Zealand's Alps, he missed also the musical notes of cowbells and goat-bells, which ring in the ears of climbers in the lower altitudes of the European Alps. As far as he can estimate, New Zealand’s Alps, although some thousands of feet lower than the European Alps, are harder to climb owing to the fact that there seems to be little in the way of regular tracks, and to the absence of painted stones which are a feature of passes on the Tyrolese Mountains. red. blue, or white marks indicating different directions. As a result, he states, climbers on New Zealand's Alps must be careful where they wander. '