AERIAL RAILWAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 237, 7 October 1936, Page 9

AERIAL RAILWAY

FOR MOUNT RUAPEHU SCHEME BEING CONSIDERED i PREPARATION OF PLANS Consideration is being given to the question of constructing a funicular or aerial railway on Mount Ruapehu at Tongariro National Park. Estimates of the cost of providing such a facility from different points, ana plans of the type of installation required, are being drawn, and the matter will later be considered by the Government. The Public Works Department is inquiring into the subject, and reports have been obtained from the Chateau and other sources. The project was raised during the ski championships at National Park last month by Mr Colin Wyatt, the noted English ski jumper, and Mr T. W. Mitchell, captain of the Australian team, who has had considerable European experience, and they discussed it with the general manager of the Tourist Department, Mr L. J. Schmitt. It is understood the type of service (favoured at present would be a cai suspended from a wire hawser. It would be capable of holding at least ten persons, with an upper terminus far enough up the mountain to justify the claim that visitors could travel to the top of Ruapehu. It is likely that the lower terminus would be at the Chateau. After an inspection of the snowfields last month, Mr Wyatt told a press representative that the provision of a funicular would make National Park a really first-class ski-ing resort. Until such a facility was provided, New Zealand ski-ing world be handicapped in competition with overseas countries, as skiers could get less than half the amount of downhill running in a day they would otheiwise enjoy. The construction of an aerial railway or a funicular on Ruapehu would not be difficult or very expensive, he said, because of the abundance of firm rock foundations. Even a funicular going up Ruapehu 1500 ft. from the i Salt Hut would be of great value to (Skiers, and should pay for itself in four or five years, if European experience would be taken as a guide.