YOUTH HOSTELS MOVEMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 525, 6 August 1932, Page 15

YOUTH HOSTELS MOVEMENT.

N.Z. Association Determined to Build Worthy Traditions.

(Written for the “ Star ”

by

C. H. Wilding.)

Tramping is essentially a post-war movement overseas, for although walking tours have always been taken, they have been confined up till recently to the few—mostly students. The war had left Europe exhausted. Nansen, the explorer and great international! rt. realised where salvation lay for this over-strained, over-mechanised and materialistic world. To the youth of Europe, grown up under war strain and physical deprivation, Nansen gave the promise of new life and hope “ Idraet,” Nansen proclaimed, which is the Norse for “ Go back to Nature.”

The open-air and tramping movement seized the imagination of European nations, but in no country in such a spectacular and revolutionary manner as in Germany. In this country the Youth Hostel movement began in the following humble manner; A country schoolmaster was transferred to a large city. He took some of his pupils, whose parents had never been able to afford a holiday in the country, to an empty schoolhouse on the edge of a forest. The holidays spent tramping in the open resulted in the city boys returning home transformed. From this beginning is said to have arisen the vast chains of hostels, numbering 3500 in Germany alone, each hostel being within walking distance of the next. The cost of a night’s shelter is very low. The few rules are strictly enforced, alcohol is forbidden, and rooms must be left clean and tidy. The hostels are open to all classes and all creeds, and a cheery spirit of good fellowship prevails. Other nationalities are welcomed. English young people visited these German hostels. In consequence, on their return to England they asked that accommodation at similarly low rates should be provided in England, thus making it possible for them to get to know their own country. Up till the advent of the hostels in England motorists had been well catered for, while for youthful trampers with light purses expensive hotels had made walking tours impossible.

Thus came into existence the Youth Hostel Association of England. The National Council of Social Service gave it friendly guidance. On the Central Council of the Hostels Association in is represented the National Federation of Women’s Inrtitutes, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Y.W.C.A., Y.M.C.A., Headmistresses’ Association, Headmasters’ Association, Federatiun of Rambling Clubs, etc. —thirty-seven organisations in all. Besides the Central Council there are also Regional Councils, which control the hostels in their own area. When the suggestion was made to open up a certain beautiful part of the country, people of all classes generously came forward to assist. Great diversity exists among the, hostels. In the Cotswolds, for instance, one hostel consists of a converted mill-house, another is kept by a retired village policeman, who has added sleeping porches to his cottage, and a third is a beautiful old country house. At one village the innkeeper provides meals at a low cost, while two adjoining barns have been converted into comfortable sleeping quarters, all the villagers assisting in the conversion. Growth in New Zealand. Over a year ago the Sunlight League began to advocate Youth Hostels for New Zealand. Sir Arthur Dobson. Mr Frank Milner and Professor Wall had faith in the movement and worked for it. The Sunlight League decided to make an attempt on Banks Peninsula. Certain inhabitants were approached and their sympathy enlisted in a movement which, if it became a national one, must result in increased physical

fitness of the New Zealand nation and incidentally decrease hospital expenditure, and they public-spiritedly promised to assist. They realised that receiving trampers is not a moneymaking concern, as they are giving the ame low rates that prevail in England —one shilling a bed and one shilling a meal. Trampers must carry their own linen sleeping-bag (a double sheet sewn up at the side, or one may be purchased for 5s 3d) so the owners of the hostels avoid the cost of washing. Blankets are supplied at the hostels.

The Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand is determined to safeguard the owners of the hostels and property, and also to earn a good name and build up worthy traditions. Therefore, trampers making use of the hostels must belong to some tramping club, owing allegiance to the Hostel Association, which could enforce disciplinary measures if rules of conduct were broken by members. The following is the list of clubs which have joined the association: Sunlight League of New Zealand, Canterbury Mountaineering and Tramping Club, Kiwi Joggers, St Margaret’s Old Girls, Girls’ High School, Christ’s College, Boys’ High School, Y.M.C.A., Canterbury College Students’ Tramping Club, and the Winter Sports Club. The association affiliation fee for a club is 10s 6d, and particulars may be obtained from the honorary secretary and treasurer, Mr Hammitt, 25, Clive Street, Linwood, Christchurch. As the hostels can only receive from four to eight trampers at a time, it is necessary to notify the hostel secretaries well in advance (Mies Wilding, 58, St Martins Road, Christchurch, ‘phone 31-662, or Miss M’Aulay, 35, Idris Road, ’phone 36-726). Each tramper on arrival must sign the hostel book and present his membership card (which costs one shilling). Banks Peninsula. Banks Peninsula is an ideal tramping ground and provides excellent bathing. It seems very remote, when there, yet the journey by combined train and launch only takes three-quarters of an hour from Christchurch. A walking tour on the Peninsula is very varied. At one time the road will lead by a lovely shell-strewn white beach, then sharply ascend through elemps of bush where tuis and native warblers sing, past sparkling stream to some high raddle commanding magnificent views. The Canterbury Plains spread out, bounded in the distance by the chain of dazzlingly -white snow-capped Alps, stretching away for a hundred miles. Far below lie deep inlets of blue water which were havens for the whaler and sealer who frequented the Peninsula bays in the 'thirties and ’forties. Akaroa, the only town on the Peninsula, was the first settlement made in Canterbury, and the quaint gables and dormer windows, and the French names of its attractive sleepy old streets bear witness to the nationality of its first settlers. The Peninsula chain of hostels now stretches from Teddington to Diamond Harbour, Port Levy, Pigeon Bay, Little Akaloa, Okains Bay, Le Bons Bay, Duvauchelles Bay, Akaroa and the Hill Top. It is the hope of the newlyformed association that distant tramping clubs will make use of the Peninsula hostels, either for a week’s walking tour, or just for a couple of days When they experience and realise how great the joy is of getting to know their own country on foot, perhaps they, too. will, as the English trampers did on their return, if their district is a good tramping one, set about obtaining further hostels.

A tramping tour is not only an excellent investment for future health and the means of keen present enjoyment, but also is an inexpensive way of spending holidays.