c.—io.

APPENDIX. REPORTS OF NATIONAL PARK BOARDS. TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK BOARD. (W. Robertson, Under-Secretary for Lands, Chairman.) The business of the Board for the year ended 31st March, 1935, did not necessitate the holding of frequent meetings, the bulk of the matters on hand being dealt with at meetings held on 18th September and 21st November last. Ruapehu Ski Club's Hut. At the last-mentioned meeting the representations of the Ruapehu Ski Club with respect to mountain-hut proposals were dealt with, and it was decided that in regard to a high-altitude hut the Board would favourably consider the granting of facilities on the lines indicated in the previous report of the Board. The plans of the hut proposed to be erected and the exact location of the site are to be submitted for examination and approval by a sub-committee of the Board. Ohakune Mountain Track. Representations were received from the Ohakune Chamber of Commerce that a road should be formed from Ohakune Junction to the Ohakune mountain hut on Mount Ruapehu. Various phases of this proposal were discussed, particularly as to the necessity or desirability of cutting a chain strip through the forest, whether such a road would be restricted, to one-way traffic, and whether it would be possible to survey a route without going through the heavy forest. The matter will be closely investigated and further considered at a future meeting of the Board. Park Land near Ohakune. To give access to a block of land being subdivided by the Crown near' Ohakune the Board consented to the taking of a short length of road through a portion of the park land in that locality. The question of removing certain dead trees from the fringe of the forest in this vicinity and the planting of other trees as a protective measure are matters which have received consideration by the Board, and it has been decided not to remove the dead timber. In regard to the planting of other trees, further inquiries are being made, and the matter will be finally determined at the next meeting. Access to Waihohonu Hut. Representations were made that a road should be formed branching off from the WaiouruTokaanu Road to give access to the Waihohonu hut on the north-eastern side of the park, but it was decided that no action could be taken at present, particularly as the Board has no funds available. Deer. As stated in the previous report, permits to shoot deer within the boundaries of the park subject to certain safeguarding conditions were issued to two officers of the Prisons Department at Waikune. In a recent memorandum from the Controller-General of Prisons it is stated that 102 deer have been shot, and it is appropriate that the Board should here record its thanks to the officers of the Prisons Department for their valuable services in ridding the forest of so many of these animals. The permits to shoot have been renewed. The Forest in Tongariro National Park. The following report dealing with the above has been prepared by Mr. C. M. Smith, Chief Inspector, State Forest Service, and the thanks of the Board to Mr. Smith and the Director of Forestry in this connection are recorded " Twenty-seven years ago the late Dr. L. Cockayne, F.R.S., wrote thus : — "' The park presents the curious anomaly of being, except for the narrow piece of forest on the north of Tongariro and one or two small patches on the spurs of Ruapehu, practically without a tree.' " He made this fact the basis of a recommendation for extension of the then boundaries of the park to include the beech-clad gullies to the east of Tongariro and the beech slopes to the south and west, of Ruapehu. These recommendations have now been not only carried out, but exceeded." The forest now included within the park boundaries covers 24,000 acres, and the Board feels some satisfaction in recording this result of twenty-seven years' continuous pursuance of a policy advocated by the late doyen of the New Zealand scientific world. The merit of the performance is in no small measure shared with Cockayne by Mr. E. Phillips-Turner, of Hamilton, an ex-member of the Board, who in various administrative capacities lent uninterrupted and assiduous support to the Board's efforts. The reproach of a forestless park having been removed, it becomes not only appropriate but almost necessary that at least a note should be incorporated in this report to deal with the park forests ; for inquirers who read Cockayne's 1908 report on the vegetation will no longer find that it covers all the botanical features of the areas concerned. Its author anticipated some extension of area, and described in some detail plant associations which were but meagrely if at all represented in the then park, so that whilst, for instance, the boundaries were extending through the different types of subalpine beech forest the report was still complete and adequate. As, however, these boundaries were pushed farther and farther into the lower country they enclosed or intersected forest associations of a totally different nature from that of any described in the report, and in such cases not only are the association descriptions lacking from the body of the report, but even the species names do not appear in the plant catalogue.

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