PROBLEM OF TAUPO'S DEVELOPMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5330, 17 February 1947, Page 2

PROBLEM OF TAUPO'S DEVELOPMENT

IMPROVEMENT MEE'DED X ? . M POOR FISHING CONiDITIONS .. DISCOUR AGIN G A$GLER§ ... Hawke's Bay anglers and their farriilies were virtually the pioneers of Taupo as a holidiay resort. To-day, although every district in the North Island is represented among the temporary summer residents, with a particularlyi strong: /and ever-growing clontigent from Auckland, Taupo in the 'mid-sum-mer holidays is still sbme-like a rather remote suburb of Napies and Hastings. . The children and grandchildren of some of the original enterprising spirits, who traversed the Taupo road in Cai)s of pi'e-1914 vintage, are now in many cases enjoying the adventage of lake-side eites for which very high prices would now have to be paid. There is still plenty of building land at Taupo, however. The gentle slope; for miles back from the lake shore, with the occasionfctl well-defined terrace >mar.king an ancient lake-level, ensures an admirable view, and in some cases a superb yiew, from almost every cottage. iNor does the utge to acquire Taupo sections show any sign of abating. Of a large area originally taken up by the late Mr. Henry. Hill, Napier, and xecently opened up for subdivision, many of the best sections on a commanding terrace have already been sold, and the inevitable Army huts ave already made their *appearance thereon. There is also a tendency for: newcomers to go further aiield. Mr. G. P. Shepherd, secretary of the Native Affairs Department in Wellington, was regarded almost as a pioneer when, within the last few years, he built a house on the slope above the Maori village of Onekeneke, near the tum-off to Napier. Others, however,have now fololwed his example, and it is likely that in the next few years there will be further development in this area, making Onekeneke a kind of suburb of Taupo, and adding to the generally rambling character of the township.

Fires Retard Building. On the Acacia side a few new cottages have risen among the scrub, but the serious fires of recent years, in which some of the buildings narrowly escaped destruction, may have retarded settlement in that area, whieh 1 has the advantage ofbeing sheltered from the prevailing wind. An interesting development, however, is that an Auckland man, well known in the legal profession, has bought a section at Rangatira Point. and may become the first of many to build in taht area. There is no road acces sand he will have to get his supplies and building material to the site 'by boat. It will be some time before building facilities for summer cottages are available, and _perhaps he, like othcrs, will for the present have to adapt Army huts to his needs. Taupo looiks forward to the time when it will have electricity. It seems ironic that thb greatest national source ,of power should still be without an official supply of the current which the lake is the principal means of generating. Unforti^nately the scajttered naturei :of . settlement at Taupo will make reticulation difficult and expensive, and similarly .will dielay the provision of water supply and drainage. There is, however, one urgentlyneeded improvement for which residenst may reasonably ask, and that is a better standard of roading, "whicb an exnet sifnbuotio cmd-nmuul,toef an extension of bitumen to the Spa Hotef, Waitahanui, Acacia Bay, as well as on the side streets in the township itself. Until th'ese improvements are effected, dust will be a major nuisance and road conditions a sore ' trial to motorists. Decline in Fishing. There is another Taupo problem for which no one appears to have any solution, and that is the undeniablc steady decline in the quality of thc trout-fishing. This season conditiom have been euphemistically described a*. 1 "hard." The fact is that scores oi anglers have fished for day after day without catching anything. Taupo is very largely the centre on which New Zealand's fame as 't'he angler's E1 Porado" is founded, and the increasing difficulty of catching fish there is thefeore a matter of some national consequence, deserving of far morc than the somewhat perfunctory at tention it appears to reeeive from thc ' Internal Affairs Department. No angler. disputes that this year, as last year, better fish have on the whole been taken, but when keen fishermen can fish hard for a fortnight or three weeks and take only a dozen fish, the condition of the fish is scant consolation for many blank days. Tht root of the trouble appears to lie in the alteration of the feeding habtis of ti'out, caused by the introduction of smelt in the lake. Although fish can be'caught while "smelting," they no longer rise readily to the fly, and trolling with a spoon, which attracts casual visitors and non-iisher-men, now yields few fish even in the : Western Bays. Some of the large launches, which used to take out trolling parties and bring back boxes of, fish, have this year caught hardly any. One launch last Sunday, with a party of 25 people, spent all day at Waihora and returned without a fish. The affliction is therefore not restricted to fly fishermen, but it hits them hardest on account of the cost of gear and licences. Many experienced Taupo fishermen express themselves forcefully on the difficulties now attending thei rsport, and condemn the infrpduction of smelt as a disastrous and apparently irretrievable blunder.