"THE WRONG SPUR"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 60, 8 September 1931, Page 10

"THE WRONG SPUR"

AN OLD, OLD TROUBLE

MOUNTAIN, TUSSOCK, BUSH

LURE OF GORGE-TRAPS

The failure to recover one out of fourteen, persons lost in the bush below Euapehu will probably result in an inquest (or at any rat© an inquiry) sooner or later. Meanwhile the bushcraft issues and the mountaincraft issues are being freely discussed. The skill of the bushmen in rescuing thirteen out of fourteen has commanded much admiration. At the same time, it is recognised that if mountaincraft had been used in the first place, tho exacting bush-combing effort would have been unnecessary. frif lost climbers,'', says the manager of the Chateau, "would only keep to the open tussock country between tho snow and tho bush, they would be picked up in a few hours." But by struggling on downwards, and yielding to the common tendency to veer to the left, people lost on Euapehu "work down to the most dangerous and inaccessible bush country in the whole of tho National Park.'"' To be lost on a mountain means to be attacked by an urge to get down at any cost, and to follow water into difficult (perhaps impassable) places. Tho bush is looked upon as shelter from the blizzard. If it yield more shelter than, the tussock, it also provides more concealment when the searchers come. A BELOW-BUSHLINE TRACK. Mr. E. Phillips Turner, in yesterday's "Evening Post," put forward, inter alia, a double-barrelled suggestion. In the first place, he would mark the track between the bottom of the Whakapapa Glacier and top of the bushline; but, foreseeing that in the worst weather some people would still lose the track, he would intercept their downward wanderings with a horizontal track "cut round the base of the mountain about half a mile below the upper margin of the bush." If such a track were made through the bush from near the Chateau "to the Mahuia Stream, or, better still, to the Makatote River," descending parties that have taken a wrong spur would be redirected on coming to the track, and would be thus saved from losing themselves in the lower forest. When the latter has happened, the search becomes a bushman's job, and there is no doubt that New Zealand has thousands of men who are marvellous at speeding through thick bush. The work don© on this search has commanded the wonder of novices, who cannot understand how the bushman crashes his way through. But it is not all crash. There is art in. it. And as it is an art that most healthy New Zealanders can pick up, the vogue of bush-tramping is to be encouraged. THE DOG TO THE RESCUE. Is it advisable that, in tracing the lost, there should be quadruped as well as ' biped searchers? The proposal that each district, where the loss risk obtains, should have its trained dogs, skilled in tracking through bush and over mountain, is one that commands attention. If a dog can be trained to follow a pig's scent and ignore that of a goat, cannot a dog bo trained to perform a nobler purpose in locating lost human beings? Of course, there is a question of cost. If the police in certain districts kept trained dogs, there would be some Government expenditure entailed—not a tithe of the cost, however, of mobilising 500 or 1000 people to search over a period of days or weeks. The dogs might do the job in the first twentyfour hours, and forestall the mass search. A correspondent, whose letter appears below, suggests that if the Government cannot, through the police, train search-dogs, the Government might at least appeal to patriotic amateurs. There are many dog-masters to whom the task of training would be a labour of love; and the cost of maintaining they might also be prepared to meet, with or without a small subsidy. One thinks that in any case a Buapehu dog-master who had found the lost ones on the Sunday, saving them many hours of exposure, would not have gone unrewarded. The dog is an invaluable factor in New Zealand's farm life, and his adaptability to man-finding and deer-destroy-ing is well worth further inquiry. CANINE INSURANCE TOR BOLD YOUTH. Mr. E. J. D. Hercus writes to the Editor:— Sir, —Your .correspondent, Mr. R. C. C. Burton, has made a valuable suggestion in his letter on the recent misadventure on Euapehu. Some ten years ago two men were lost on the Tararuas, and the heroic efforts made to recover them led me to write you a letter embodying a similar suggestion. It passed unheeded, as did a subsequent appeal addressed to the then Minister of Justice, yet again and again since then my attention has been drawn to incidents which reinforce the argument in support. Sir, the facts speak for themselves. We live in a rugged and scenic land, whore Nature cries aloud to adventurous youth, and offers rewards so satisfying as to draw to our shores even visitors from distant lands. Our total population is small, and in the places of greatest charm and danger it always will be. When news reaches our community that men are lost or in jeopardy, volunteers are never lacking, and relief measures are improvised with all speed, for loss of time means loss of life. "Yet, although these emergencies recur with distressing frequency, no attempt has been made to enlist in the equipment of succour the unmatched sagacity of the dog. Even before the Great War such writers as Major Richardson had demonstrated in the tamed and teeming mother-country that trained dogs were essential to an efficient police service. There, as in other civilised lands of Europe, the trained dog has taken his place as one of the recognised allies of humanity. Yet in New Zealand, with far greater need and opportunity for his services, nothing has been done to secure them. "If our administrators find themselves unable to include in the Estimates a definite appropriation for trained dogs under police control, they might at least examine whether the same result might not be partially achieved by an appeal to patriotic amateurs. We have in our midst many dog-lovers who need but a word of encouragement from the Government to lead them to grasp the opportunity of ennobling their hobby by consecrating it as need arises to the rescue of those in distress."