MOUNT HOLDSWORTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1939, Page 4

MOUNT HOLDSWORTH

CLUB’S USEFUL WORK OVER LONG PERIOD.

DISBANDMENT SUGGESTED.

The Mount Holdsworth Club has been in existence for 33 years. During that time it has raised and spent many hundreds of pounds and provided a great deal of free material and labour. Practically the whole of the roads, tracks, bridges, culverts, huts and conveniences on the mountain, facilities which have been enjoyed by thousands of visitors have been provided as the result of the club’s efforts.

Willing workers have come and gone, though some members of the original committee are still active in its interests. Strenuous fights have been put up against the efforts of sawmillers to invade the area, this being the last remaining place in the Tararua State Forest where the untouched natural bush can be reached by car. There seems to be little danger of any such interference in the future. Of recent years the Wairarapa Automobile Association has‘become interested in the area and has relieved the club of much responsibility, and the Wairarapa Tramping Club has also materially assisted the club. The activity of the Government in putting tracks and huts from Kaitoke to the Holdsworth Reserve, also the boom in skiing on Mount Holdsworth, promises to put too great a strain on the club’s finances and the few remaining enthusiasts of the club, in view of the indifference of the public and tiie lack of funds, have come to the conclusion that the club should be disbanded and the balance of its funds handed to the Wairarapa Automobile Association to be spent on road improvements in deference to car owners, who have contributed the bulk ol the club’s funds per medium of the box at the gate. ______