“BUTTING IN?"

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 274, 9 February 1928, Page 1

“BUTTING IN?"

RANGiTOTO PRESERVES DOMAIN BOARD’S ATTITUDE ISLAND OPEN TO PUBLIC “The attention given to some remarks by Dr. A. W. Hill, of Kew Gardens, who visited Rangitoto Island on Monday, has been out of all proportion to the circumstances under which they were made. He was hardly 60 minutes on the island,” remarked Mr. E. Aldridge, chairman of Rangitoto Domain Board, at its meeting last night. T4FR. T. WALSH, who officially represented the board on the occasion, explained that only the briefest outline of the board’s policy was given, as the visitors were intent on viewing certain botanical curiosities on the island. He explained that, commensurate with its duties as a domain board in making the island open to the public, the board was making the domain a native plant sanctuary. A man who had been a few minutes on the place and had no knowledge of local conditions should have hesitated before “butting in.” It was not feasible to declare the island a sanctuary, unless a big patrol force was to be employed, and even if it were feasible It was too late. The island had been open to the public for 80 years: had been a quarantine station, the site of salt-works, frequented by boatmen and campers, and the Harbour Board had for 46 years operated a huge quarry in Islington Bay, where there was a settlement and school, and where hundreds of acres of vegetation had been destroyed. Board members declined to take Mr. Hill’s advice not to continue with the summit road, considering that to close the island up for the sake of occasional scientific purposes was not reasonable.