TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2912, 26 October 1916, Page 7

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

A GREAT ASSET

SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE IN THE MAKING

Only a few days ago Mr. H. F. Von Haast contributed a very interesting article to The Dominion, detailing the joys of winter sports on the slopes of Tongariro, tho big mountain sentinel of tho Tongariro National Park. Ho in-dicated-very clearly the wonderful exhilaration experienced l in ski-ing and tobogivnning doivn tho sunny dopes of the big mountain—an exhilaration "that is only known to tlioso folk.who go in for Alpine-climbing, from the fascination of which one never escapes. Winter sports in Switzerland in normal times attract thousands of people from all parts of Europe. People that ono would think would make for the .sunny shores of tlio Mediterranean seek, tho frozen heights of St. Moritfi and win back health and good: spirits in tho wonderful air of tha Alps. So it may bo in New Zealand, when the publio loarns the real valuo of its mountain re6orvos.

But this is not the only virtuo possessed by tho National Park. "People haven't got tho faintest conception of tho value of tho park," said Polico Commissioner John Cullen to a Dominion representative yesterday. "It is a country that embraces almost overy kind of scenery there is in Now Zealand—rough tussock landj beautiful bush of a density and luxuriant growth rarely equalled anywhere. There, are mountain lakes, tooming with trout streams, cold and l hot, snowy slopes, and ice peaks—all withm easy reach of the railway. Yet how many people visit the place? !A.' few hundred perhojw at odd times in tho summer—and they roturn again and' again, because they appreciate the many attractions the district offers."

In a way the National Park is a hobby of Commissioner Oullon's. He is a sportsman naturally, and an intense lover of nature and life in the open. He has ca-mpcd! on tho National Park for four or five summers in succcssion, and visited tho placo dozens of times, so. that there is littlo he does not know ,of its manifold resources. There is-a big road improvement being made at present by prison labour—tho new connection between Waimarino (on the Main Trunk line) and Tokaanu (Lake Taupo), a road that is going to curtail the distance to about 35 miles, and at the same time provide a well-graded and highly picturesque highway between the Main Trunk railway and the whole of the West Coast through to the centre of the island, snd' so to TVairakei and the wonderland of Rotorua. Already the road has been made some twelve miles out from Waimarino, and several streams that it crosses have been solidly bridged. The road commands wide-spreading panoramas of mountain and' lake (Roto-ira) scenery, and will be a great tourist highway in the days to come-

. Commissioner CuUon. has ideas and enthusiasm to back them in connection with the park. He .believes that the groat waste spaces of tussock land can ba transformed, in time into. a sportsman's paradise. At present, of course, there is nothing to attract the sportsman save the trout in the streams, which aro_ doing splendidly, gad it would be injudicious to liberate game birds without providing them with congenial food. That is what Mr. Oullen is trying to do. Years ago he introduced Scotch heather, and every season thousands of. plants, raised from seed in New Zealand, aro sown out in remote parts of otherwise waste lands below the snow-line. The heather has taken to the soil like a native, but it has not spread as it was supposed it would, owing to the depredations of the rabbits in the winter time. Then the Heather is about the only growth that obtrudes above the snow, and being the only green stuff in eight, Brer Rabbit oats it right down to the ground, and sometimes below it. But he does' not kill" the root. Heather is hard to kill. Such is the vitality in the root that it may be cut or iburned. down a dozen times, but it will come on again. Indeed, in Scotland it is often burned off Th order to improve the growth. So that as soon as the rabbits can bo effectively dealt with the heather will thrivo, and foodstuff will be created for grouso' and pheasants. Then Mr. Oullen has planted ;quarts of bilberry seed (French), which produces a fine, large purple berry as big as a black currant, and as good for man as for the hirds. Theresuit so far. has not been very encouraging, but it is known that the bilberry is slow to germinate, and some tiny plants have actually been recognised as bilberries. Some 200 plants of the Indian strawberry, and 800 wild cherries (slips from cherry trees) have been planted in various parts ,oF the park over a wide area. Some 450 rowan plants (bearing a fine edible berry), the berrying arbutus, besides certain kinds of vetches, have been planted out liberally, and will in a year or so, it is hoped, make a brave show. When that is so, it will be time to consider acclimatising game birds to the district, and preserving them there until they are well established. In the meantime a certain quantity of trout ova is being liberated an the streams each .season with completely satisfactory results.