ROAD IN TARARUAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1937, Page 4

ROAD IN TARARUAS

REPLY TO PROTESTS

(To the £iditon) Sir,.—lt is difficult to conceive that the Greytown Borough Council knows so little as to take the view and. action it has regarding the proposed road in the Tararuas.' Before it gets viewing again with such alarm, the council should seek some first-hand information about the ranges from some of the older people, such as Messrs. Mark Maxton, Bassett, Webster, Humphreys, Sayers, Fairbrother, Brabinder, Grigor, Frank Wall, and many others. The council would then have learned that thj purity of the water supply was in no way endangered. Tnere are high mountains and a deep valley separating the Greytown water supply trom the proposed road. If Greytown is seri-' ously concerned about its water supply, and the purity of it, may I suggest their catchment area is the vital point. Mr. Tate says: "With their experience of the past they should adopt the slogan 'Hands off the trees.'" Would Mr. Tate tell me of any road in any national park or reserve where that road has led to destruction of the forest, flooding, and so forth. The best example of a forest road in a park similar to the proposed Tararua one, is at Mount Egmont, and what forest destruction has this road been responsible for? Those roads, have enabled hundreds of thousands of people access .to altitudes, with pleasure to themselves and added good, health. Respectfully, I would suggest Mr. Tate and' his brother councillors make their slogan "Mouths off the trees," and if the deer would only take notice of them they would save more trees in one year than they would if twenty such roads were made. ■ Deer destruction is what the Wairarapa councillors want to aim for: Floodings are mainly due to the loss of undergrowth and the forest carpet of leaves, mould, fern, and mosses, which hold moisture and which the deer destroy. .There are many thousands of deer, in the Tararua Range, and if they are unchecked the only forest.remaining in:a decade or two will be in the vicinity of any road from which they would be scared. I am distinctly against-: unnecessary forest destruction, and for many years have thrown whatever weight I could in the direction of saving it, because I khow the economic value, as well as the glory of it. I do wish everyone could enjoy the privileges and the consequent good health that I have had from the forest and the mountains, and my suggested road, if built, would be a-big step in that direction;. I know thatthe more people who have a firsthand knowledge of our forest in the Tararuas, and the wonders of that area, the greater will be the number of protectionists. . •The best work in introducing the •Tararua Ranges to the public was, strangely enough, done years ago in Greytown, when a band of unselfish forest and mountain lovers opened up a fine track from the Waiohme Valley over Reeves, down to the Tauherenikau, up to Alpha and placed signs from there to Table Top. In those early days these men of Greytown laboured, hard, dipped deeply: into, their pockets to provide tracks and huts—not for themselves, but to encourage others to benefit from the joys and good health the forests and mountains gave. Frank Wall generously built a fine little hut at personal expense in the Waiohine to replace Bassett's Hut which the owner for many years had allowed trampers to occupy.- Those men showed a fine community spirit .and had visions of the future. ' " " Mr..- Tate and his friends aver the proposed road—it's a road only so far as I'm concerned—has no commercial value. What a limited narrow view— a measuring up in terms of £ s. d. Now my Greytown and mistaken friends, the greatest item of commercial value in New Zealand is the good health and happiness of its people and that can't be appraised in terms of cattle, wool, or even turnips. Since I had written this I find the Wairarapa ■ South County Council are also protesting against a road. They were wiser than their Greytown friends as they held a constructive view, suggesting the replanting of the foothills. This letter is unquestionably sound. What, however, is their point in saying, make access easy and you'll soon be up against vested interests and a road would soon mean sawmills being set up, I think that is a distinct and unwarranted reflection upon our btate Forest and Crown Lands Departments. The tararuas are well protected now, and it is aspersion, based upon ignorance, to say if a road goes in they won't be. If the Government needed any spurring you can be certain the public would give it to them if the public knew of the need.. Now, then, Wairarapa, you live in a very fine open country, with plenty of open spaces. You're- not congested, j you spend much of your life out in the open, out in the sun and fresh air. • A bit of country and a forest and mountain road might not mean much to you, but think what it does for the city people, who work in offices and factories and whose back yards are a few square feet, and their neighbours inches distant. Think what the bringing into easy reach a miniature Switzerland means to them. —I am, etc., F. W. VOSSELER.