MOUNTAINEERING

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1930, Page 8

MOUNTAINEERING

I THE UPLIFT OF MAN. f

GUIDE GRAHAM’S TRIBUTE,

“Nothing can give so deeply the mental,, spiritual, andipliysi-iai unlift that comes in the mountains,” Guiue Peter - Graham, the < most famous of New Zealand alpine guides, told some members of the Christchurch Party which.'-visited the Franz Josef Hotel last week. • “At heights of more than 40;:0 feet, there is a feeling;of universal brotherhood, a Masonry*that never dies Nothing has so grea.fi a power of healing human ills and worries.”

The..risks of mountain-climbing were less than .the risks of-,driving motorcars, said Guide Graham. There were risks, he granted, but in the hands of capable guides they were safe risks. Experienced guides treated the mountains with the <jte e P est respect. They realisd that there was some excuse for |ov!er-cairtioi|suiess, but none for carelessness. m > .

Together ..with his brother, Mr Alec, ana his. sister-in-law, M-.rs.jHm Graham, Guide Graham manages., the Glacier Hotel/at jWaiho gorge.-;. The,rise of the hotel m.. ( makes ■ -interesting history. About 1897 the miners, of the district built a..small hut in the ii'iver-bed for William. Henry Batson a,nd his wife. First the miners used to call for meals and eventually Mr and Mrs Batson took .in;-hoarders. Five, different annexes -were added to thermal! “bungy-. house,” which was then.-on the fiat, about 150 feet lower than the present hotel.

RISE OF GLACIER HOTEL

When the Graham Brothers, Alec, and Jim, took over the small house in 1911 they were forced to lift it bodily on to the higher site to escape the dangers of flood. An extra storey and another wing were eventually added, and since Peter Graham came from the Hermitage in 1922 further improvements have been built up, piece by piece, with past profits. The hotel has its own electric power,’ and although this has been unsteady in dry weather, the harnessing of the Tatare river will restore it to an unlimited extent.