‘Reckless Damage” at Rangitoto

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 136, 30 August 1927, Page 13

‘Reckless Damage” at Rangitoto

CAMPERS INDIGNANT AN ACCUSATION DENIED Considerable indignation is expressed by campers at Rangitoto that they are responsible for the alleged “reckless destruction” of pohutukawa and native flora on the island. In conversation with a SUN representative who visited the island at the week-end, Messrs. S. W. Somervi J and S. Donaldson, two of the oldest campers on the island in point of residence, said that the campers strongly resent the suggestion that they were destroying the flora on the island. Many of them had been camping there for years, and as far as ■He campers were concerned, they could say that no destruction as had been alleged, had taken place. The campers have their own “shacks” on the island, for which they pay rental to the. Rangitoto Domain Board. A walk round what may be termed the residential portion of the island showed that the areas allotted to the campers are particularly well cared for, and many of the “baches” would do credit to more pretentious surroundings. THE CAMPERS’ POSITION One camper remarked to THE SUN ™ an: “The Prisons Department has done more damage in two years than the campers have done since they were first allowed to build shacks here 16 years ago. What wood the campers require for firing is got from the driftwood on the foreshore. It is easily got, there is plenty of it, and there is no inducement to cut down green timber, even if. the campers wanted /to —which they don’t. The first track on the island was made by the campers,” he remarked We don’t claim the whole of the credit for popularising Rangitoto as a week-end resort, but it was the campers that paved the way. We've got our own ‘shacks’ here, and when a man has got a stake in the place, it s not likely that he’s going to go round spoiling the appearance of the island.

We had the same sort of scare about this a couple of years ago, and the campers resent the implication that they are damaging trees and shrrubs on the island. A great deal or vhat has appeared in print seems to have been written by someone who doesn t know very much about the position, and it is most unfair to the campers, who are most careful.”