NATIONAL PARK.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19179, 9 December 1927, Page 11

NATIONAL PARK.

PROTEST AGAINST PROPOSED ROAD.

[THE PRESS Special Service.]

WELLINGTON, December 8

Objections raised ;by the New Zealand Institute, the New Zealand Bird Protection Society, and tho New Zealand JTorestry League to the felling of bush in order to give- improved road access to the Ohakune Hut on the southern slopes of Mt. Ruapehu came before the Tongariro National Park .Board tcKlay. . The people of Ohakune, said the chairman (Mr J. B. Thompson), were anxious to have a road formed from the Ohakune railway station to tho hut—a distance of about 83 miles—to supersede the present goat and horse track. The Board had no funds available at present for the work, and it was suggested to the Board that by selling the unliable timber.growing on a strip, one chain wide, on each side of the track a certain amount of revenue would be obtained for the purpose of road formation. A sub-com-mittee'of the Board visited the track and decided that the proposal was undesirable and not in the best interests of the park. There was no- motor road from Ohakune to the Southern Hut, added Mr Thompson, and the local townspeople were anxious to be in as good a position regarding access to the mountain as the Waimarmo and adjacent districts were. -,,,,+ A member: It is not desirable that any more roads should be made through the forest. • The chairman contended tbat the public had to be considered Hie people in the district desired better access- and they were quite entitled to be heard. Mr Phillips Turner: 1 contend that we'should not consider tho matter as we have not tho funds. It would never par to make a good road. _ The chairman: That is. the opinion of the Board, bifc the people in the district are very insistent. Mr W. H. Field, M.P.: If putting a road through means sacrificing tht bush, then let us do without the road. . After further discussion it was decided to bring the question up again at the next meeting of the Board.