FAMILY CAMPS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18898, 13 January 1927, Page 2

FAMILY CAMPS.

SYDNEY MUNICIPAL SCHEME.* (raoK oub ows co&bescokdzxt.) SYDNEY, January 6. The shire council which controls a very large area on the northern side of Sydney Harbour, an area bringing within its boundaries a long stretch of watering resorts and open wooded country, has established a system of family camps which is likely to find general adoption among shires similarly situated throughout the State. It has issned permits for and set up a system of local government of family camps on certain of its reserves. Rigid regulations exist, for instance, in regard to sanitation. Parties are charged os for the first week for each camp, and an additional Is a day beyond the week. In order to prevent the camps from becoming permanent homes, no party is allowed to camp on the reserves for more than three months. The experience to date is that the parties, generally speaking, remain only c^ 8 a holiday or week-end periods. Several hundred parties, involving miniature villages, have taken advantage of the scheme, which is not onlv a revenue producer, the proceeds going to the improvement of the reserves, but also something of a sprat to catch a mackerel, for it is the belief that in quite a number of cases the infatuated with the place, will become permanent ratepayers of the shire. Motorists and other week-enders are finding it increasingly difficult to know just where to pitch their tents with any sense of securitv. o£ feeling that if they do select a spot it will be under effective control or possess at least sanitary appointments and • sources of W « supply. The new scheme thus offers big possibilities if other shires take it up and make it still more attractive.