THE NATIONAL PARK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19732, 29 December 1926, Page 12

THE NATIONAL PARK

CLAIMS OF THE PUBLIC NECESSITY FOE A HOSTEL STATE LOAN SUGGESTED That another holiday season should find the Tongariro National Park without hostci accommodation was inevitable, but that 1926 should end without promise of any improvement in means of access in the coming year has given intense disappointment to mountainlovers There is no selfishness behind their regret The great majority of them enjoy the primitive kind of life of the huts, and would rather continue “doing for themselves” than pay the price of hostel amenities, which is tho coming of a crowd, part of which would prefer jazzing to a gramophone to the mountain solitudes They arc exercised in mind because, knowing what a wonderful health resort the mountains are, they want them to bo brought within the reach of every suction of the community as speedily as possible. They realise that until hostel accommodation is provided the great majority will bo cut off from the park, because families cannot be catered for. If it wcro more widely known that the park is not imerely a plaeu for hardy youth, but for everyone, the inertia which has characterised the administration for so mar?y years would not have bceu countenanced.

Seeing that the great bulk of the North Island population lives on the seaboard, much of it in the zone of iangourous if not oppressive summer heat, the park, as a health resort, is of incalculable value. Few people there are, particularly in the city of Auckland, says tho “New Zealand Herald,” who would not benefit greatly by holiday's speut in the tonic air of the mountains. They need not climb the heights to receive a fresh supply of energy; the altitude of the base of the mountains is sufficient to supply the change which makes the elderly forgot their years and turns children into examples of perpetual motion. Too Elaborate a Scheme In regard to the failure of the board to obtain a single tender for a hostel privilege, it is tho opinion of many that tho conditions require a building too elaborate to fill the present need. There is an idea in the minds of some that the board had in view an establishment of the kind that caters for the wealthy. It is argued, however, that the wealthy are already provided for at the Hermitage, Mount Cook, which, as a mountain resort, is infinitely superior to Tongariro Park. The Hermitage was built n by the Government; and after being carried on by the State as a losing proposition for many years was leased at a low rental to a private company. Seeing that State expenditure has thus provided accommodation at Mount Cook which is within easy reach of all wealthy tourists, it is contended that the State should provide the money to enable the North Island mountain region to be accessible to the great majority, whose means are limited.

Mr H. A. Holl, of Auckland, is of this opinion. “At Ruapehu,” he said, “tho family man and the people who have only a few pounds to spend on a holiday ought to be catered for. It should not be impossible to have a comfortable hotel providing plain food at a charge of £3 or £3 10s a week. The day will undoubtedly come- when there will be hostels up the mountain side and the demand for elaborate accommodation, but for a start there is no need to attempt anything upon a luxurious scale. Nor is there any need, at the outset at ail events, to create what is implied by the term ‘a tourist house.’ We should be thinking much more about tho well-being of our own people in this matter than of the passing tourist.” Outline of Require merits. Some time ago Mr. Holt drew up a hostel scheme which aimed at providing a cheap holiday. The building he suggested should be on the Whakapapa huts site, not selected as the best one, but as the one most easy of access, and therefore entailing no reading costs. It Would have accommodation for 50 people, the bedrooms opening off one long passage. There would bo four bathrooms and a large recreation room fitted mth folding doors to provide a sitting room when numbers were small. Attached would be a store stocking provisions and equipment that could be hired by people preferring to live in the huts. Prices would be fixed at a certain percentage above city rates. The hostel would have horses for hire and arrange motor transport at, say 7s fid from the National Park station. He proposed a toll of 2s fid on motor-cars to pay for road upkeep. The manager would be responsible for hotel and huts, the collection of fees, and at slack times should be able to conduct parties about the mountains. In regard to the fuel difficulty the scheme suggested that wood could be procured from a, wide track cut as a fire break in the direction of Hauhangitahi. In this clearing horses could bo pastured. A .Safe Investment. Details of the scheme need not here be discussed. The point is the general idea of a practical mountaineer whose chief aim is to provide minimum needs for the accommodation of numbers sufficiently large to enable low charges to be fixed. If private enterprise refuses to consider any scheme that will not justify high charges —and high charges will obviously mean the limitation of numbers—there is in Mr Holt’s opinion a just claim on the precedent of the Hermitage for the State to undertake the capital expenditure if not the subsequent management.

The manner in which the WhaJcapapa huts are crowded in holiday times by people who have to bring their own supplies and do their own cooking is a guarantee that the State would obI tain interest upon a reasonable sum advanced to the board for a hostel. There is not the slightest doubt that a hostel without “frills” would be rushed throughout the summer, to say nothing of the crowds on winter occasions, when snow sports are available. 1 The public sees, if the board docs not, that the long argument over the 'hostel site has been just so much time I wasted, just so much opportunity denI ied to those who are eager to make the mountain holiday but cannot go under present conditions. It is perhaps a debatable point whether the aid of the State should be invoked for the building of a hostel, but no time should be lost by the board in reviewing its policy with a view to providing accommodation upon a more modest and attractive scale than under tho conditions that have been rejected. |