SKI-ING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1430, 3 May 1912, Page 4

SKI-ING.

NEW SPORT FOB NEW ZEALAND. Captain Head, cf tho Royal Autoraobsl® Club, London, who has been paying a visit to New Zealand, and who has bc-ea recalled to London owing to a family be. reavemont in connection with the wreck of tho Titanic, has been interesting himself for some tiino past in establishing tho Norwegian sport of ski-ing in Hug country. Initially ho endeavoured to get .llw Tourist Department (o lake up the matter, but as they proved lnke-warm, he induced the Mount Cook Motor Co. to take it; up, and that company is importing fifty pairs of Norwegian ski which they propose io hire out to llioss taking up tho sport at Fairlie, and perhaps at Mount Cook, in both of which places there are excellent ski-ing grounds. Captain Head himself has indulged in tna pastime for soino weeks oil the Tasman and Mueller Glaciers, and speaks in high terms of the sport to bo obtained both tiiero and in tho vicinity of Fairlio. "It's liko no other sport in the world, snvs the captain. "One tires of skating and other winter sports, but never of skiing. In Norway it is as popular as cvcling is in Christchurch, and there ar» no gatherings more popular_ than the big ski meetings held in diner' cut parts of ■ tho country. Everyone skis in Norway—it is practically the only way to get about, and in Canada they urn rapidly displacing tho snow shoes. It is becoming very popular at Kosciusko, in Australia. I.jndnMd a man in Sydney to import 70 pairs ot ISor* wi-man ;-ki» ami he sold out' the lot tai'ed weeks after t'nev were landed. Then you must remember it was the ski which took Amundsen to the South Polo. Ill® distances which lie covered were wonafinuir and ho .could never havo done them but for tho ski." Captain Head explained that eki nra made of picked ash or, hickory, preferably tho former, and are seven feet in length. When these laths of wood are strapped to a pair of stout boots, and tho experienced wearer cssavs a journey down a sloping hill of snow', the sensation is wonderfully exhilarating. Ski-jumping is the recreation of experts, and lo bccomo a. jumper oiio must practice very small jumps at tho beginning, gradually increasing them in height as he learns the knack of landin" in r safctv. It is nccessary in jumping to* land on a slope. It would never do to land 011 a flat, as one would stop dead, and sustain n considerable shaking if nothing else. So that one Sins to be prepared for the slide whilst in the air. . "Frankly," said Captain Head, I am mad on it| and I think it will.be a popular sport in New Zealand, because it is ;iot expensive and tho ski-ing grounds nr-e within easy reach. A pair of Norwegian ski costs 30s. at Home."