THE HERMITAGE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13807, 19 January 1909, Page 3

THE HERMITAGE.

Mr F. C. Huddlestone who established Mt. Cook Hermitage, in a chat with a "Herald" representative yesterday, was asked his opinion of the proposal to erect a new house at Governor's Bush: He spoke very decidedly against it. Mr Huddlestone said that the site is fully exposed to norwesters, and he recalled one occasion when, going to the bush there for some timber, they were compelled to leave Jiorse and dray there, becaupe they could not get them home against the gale. An objection of a different kind was that on one occasion the Harper Glacier, at the head of the creek which flows through Governor's Bush, suddenly broke away and the whole of the knob on which i£ has been proposed to erect the new house was covered with flood waters that left huge blocks of ice stranded all over the terrace. He admits that the present site is not the best—it was the best that he could select nfc the outset, with a limited )of ill experience; but in his ton years' sojourn there he learned that the best site in the neighbourhood is on some undulating downs under the Sefton, nVifiUt one-third of the way to Governor's flush from the Hermitage. The westerly gales are deflected so that they miss the spot, whence flue views nro had of Mt. Cook, the Hooker Valley, and Mt. Sefton ; and the snows of winter are molted early, the spot lying well to the sun. I'liere is also good soil there. Mr Huddlestone believes that it is a mistake to think of building in stone, as the rocks and boulders are all extremely hard, but a "shingle slide" near the site lie indicates would l'ltmifih good material for a concrete or I'eri'o-concrete building. There is no permanent water there, liufc it supply could be got bv race or pipe from Harper's Creek. Mr Huddlestone has not yet revisited the scene where lie put iri so much hard work between fifteen and twenty-five years ago.