The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1938. CLUBS A LA MODE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1938. CLUBS A LA MODE

ALARM about Arapuni seems to persist, in spite of the fact that the statement issued just before the elections was discredited as soon as the attendant facts were disclosed. the Hamilton Borough Council, with the responsibility for the safety of its ratepayers on its hands, is now pressing for further inquiry into the stability of the great dam, and with a new Government in power it should have a better chance of securing the disinterested assurances for which it seems so anxious. Hitherto Hamilton has professed an abiding pride in the Arapuni development, and has regarded it as a nice justification for an extension of civic pride; but the release of the Holmes report seems to have disturbed this comfortable feeling.

The announcement that a country club is to be established on the banks of the Arapuni lake, a sheet of water, which, of course, owes its existence entirely to the dam about which such fears centre, may perhaps help to restore Hamilton’s pride in Arapuni, and thus overcome its uneasiness; for it is difficult to be both proud of a thing and frightened of it at the same time. As the scheme took shape, the people, not only in Hamilton, but also in the Waikato and even further afield, have realised that the creation of a lake 18 miles long, and the diversion of a river, do something more than provide a head of water for a hydro-electric plant. The vicinity of Arapuni, previously only noted for rugged but remote grandeur folded away in sparsely populated country, now boasts the same elements of natural beauty, plus a large share of artificial ones. To the charm of the deep gorge it has added the impressive thunder of a magnificent cataract, and the serenity of a lovely lake. Good fishing and good shooting improve an excellent all-round “show,” and a country club, with its golf course, tennis courts and other characteristic amenities, will complete the 'attractions. Not every town in the Dominion has a country club at its back door, as Hamilton will when this ambitious plan attains fulfilment. Even Auckland has not yet achieved such distinction, although two or three separate undertakings, designed to provide some such facilities, are now in hand. The idea is a commendable one, for a residential club-house provides a means, not otherwise easily obtained, of securing the fullest enjoyment from excellent natural endowments. The outskirts of Auckland abound in places where such establishments might be founded with success. The Mansion House at Kawau is already a very fair sample of a country club in all but name. On the West Coast, the combination of scenery and surf-bathing should ultimately lead to the development of some enterprise there, and on the outlying islands there is likely to be an extension of the tendency when the population is a little bigger and the general level of opulence a shade higher. The real country club, as run in the United States, may not have a place in the social life of the Dominion for some time to come. In its most elaborate form it is an exclusive institution patronised only by the very wealthy. Sleek limousines and racy roadsters line its precincts throughout the golden days and far into the velvety nights—and there is a special cardroom for the chauffeurs. Country clubs in modified form are less ambitious, and content to cater for the crowd. The Mount Cook Hermitage, the Waitomo Hostel, and the projected “Chateau Tongariro” are examples of this mode, and there are other types mpre rudimentary. An extension of the system means that people are learning to take their pleasures in comfort, instead of surrounding them with a barrier of privation and muscular hardship. So the country club at, Arapuni may yet convince Hamilton that even a hydro-electric scheme has its advantages.