ACCESS TO MT. EGMONT

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1928, Page 11

ACCESS TO MT. EGMONT

BURDEN ON ADMINISTRATORS MENACE FROM THE GOAT PEST. DEPARTMENT ASKED TO ASSIST. SYMPATHY OF HON. A. D. MeLEOD. The executive of the Egmont National Park Board, together with members of the South Committee, waited on the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, in Hawera yesterday, asking for two grants, one of £5OO for general administrative purposes and a second of a similar amount for the building of new tracks. The Minister gave a sympathetic hearing to the deputation and said he would go into the matter with the Minister of Finance. Mr H. G. Dickie, M.P., introduced the deputation. Mr. W. D. Armit, in the absence of the chairman of the board, put forward the case for the board. In 1026, he said, a grant of £5OO was made for general administrative purposes. The board, however, decided to utilise that money for tree-planting purposes, being led to this decision through the complaints of farmers, and in order to combat the prolific growth of fern and scrub on bare areas. Last year, moreover, an employment grant of £5OO was also devoted to afforestation works on the Kaitakes, but no administrative moneys had as yet been made available to the board. Mr. Armit pointed out that the spending of these moneys on afforestation had straitened the board's finances to a serious extent. The board’s revenue amounted to only £240 a year, derived mainly from opossum trapping permits and from the opossum skins themselves. Against this, however, it had been necessary to maintain an efficient ranger service, and this had been found somewhat costly. He therefore asked the Minister for the two grants mentioned. For instance, he said, the board had in mind the building of a new track on the Kahui side. DESTRUCTION OF FOREST. “I want also to make brief reference to the menace of goats, which are at present destroying the valuable forests in certain portions of the reserve,” continued Mr. Armit. Through the grant of £250 recently made by the Minister for extermination purposes the board believed the menace was realised by the department. Despite all efforts, however, the goats were growing more numerous and were spreading round the reserve until the menace was ao serious that the board passed a resolution asking the Government to place £3OO on the estimates each year for five years with a view to the organised extermination of the pests. In this connection he pointed ont that men and* dogs had to be specially trained to hunt the goats and kill them. The board desired to thank Mr. McLeod for his action regarding the building of the northern track. Good progress was being made with the new road and it was hoped that next summer there would be a first-class road to the northern house, as a result of which the board would derive increased revenue. Meanwhile, certain citizens of New Plymouth had formed themselves into a

company with a capital of £lu,ooo, t exploit the expected tourist traffic. Regarding the east side of the mout tain, Mr. Armit said of recent years very great improvement had take place. The houses had been re-condi tinned and the track had been placed i order. In fact, a splendid response Im been received to the efforts of the Eas Committee to re-open this resort. Il 1013 a grant of £2500 was placed oi the estimates for road constiuctior This remained in existence for som time, and about £7OO was actual!, m .nt before the grant was remover Stratford residents, backed by the Eas Committee, now wanted this grant r< instated, and he wanted to say that request in this direction, to be put t the Minister at Stratford on Thursday had the full support of the ooard. NEEDS OF STRATFORD ROAD. The Stratford road from,the radiu line was not so ambitious as the north ern road, but the surface was capabl of carrying the present traffic. Nor they desired the grant of £3OO to assis them in widening the road, re-surfac portions of it and to make it general!, safer in view of the steadily increasing volume of motor traffic. Road mainte nance for the first three years had cos the committee £204, £197 and £ls' respectively. During that period i man with a horse and dray had beei employed, but latterly a contract ha< been made with the custodian (Mi Murphy) to do the work for £l5O I year, he to supply the necessary equip ment. The committee was assured b; members of local bodies that th l amount was considered very modest fo four miles of road, but now the cus todian had intimated that he wouli have to discontinue the work at th present rate of remuneration. Out o the required loan the committee a!s< desired to improve the bush tracks ii the vicinity of the house. The great problem before the com mittee was that of accommodation. Bj economical working they had been abb to set aside a reserve of a few hundrec pounds which had been earmarked foi absolutely necessary renovations. Mr. McLeod: Are you not getting sub •idles from the local bodies in youi area? Mr. Crump: Not in the south. I be lieve the east and the north, however do receive some assistance. In reply to a further question, Mr. Ar mit explained that the three roads leading to the south, east and north houses were administered by the three committees, but the board took all responsibility for all the area above the houses. In reply to the deputation, Mr. McLeod said he had always taken a personal interest in the Egmont National Park and had no hesitation >n saying that the reserve was unique in the Southern Hemisphere, if not in the world. It offered beauties and features not available elsewhere in New Zealand, and he personally looked upon it as an extraordinary asset to the people of Taranaki. “They may not value it to the same extent as people from outside districts, but I am convinced that anything that can be done for the reserve should, as far as is reasonable, be done,” he said. The Minister said he had noticed a good deal of criticism levelled at the amount voted for the north road. He recalled that the capital expenditure entailed in surfacing that road bad been

so extensive that the Government assistance was money well spent. In other roads the revenues had been eaten up in maintaining the road and the laying down of the new road would tend to reduce this annual expense by an appreciable extent. His own view and that of his colleague, the Minister of Finance, was that money spent in capital to save maintenance costs was a good policy. Thus a loan was leally an attempt to prevent wasteful expenditure on re-opening th® road each summer.

In the south, it appeared to him, they had none of the unusual features encountered at the north to contend with. The grades were not so steep and there was not the danger of flooding. With a one-way-traffic road, and the Minister thought all mountain roads should be on the one-way system, he was of opinion that the Dawson Falls track would compare very favourably with any ordinary touring road. The South Committee deserved commendation for the way it had maintained its road. After pointing out that his department had no resources from which to

grant loans for maintenance purposes, Mr. McLeod promised to discuss the matter with the Minister of Finance. He would also go into the matter of the goat menace, but told the deputation frankly that he did not think the prospects in that direction so hopeful as in the case of the other matters brought before him. Before the Estimates were finally closed he hoped to be in a position to advise the board what moneys they might expect to be made available.