ALPINE VETERAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 378, 20 September 1946, Page 28

ALPINE VETERAN

MEMORIES OF MOUNTAINS AND MEN. By Arthur P. Harper. (Simpson & Williams, Ltd.)

(Reviewed by

John

Pascoe

It’s a yo, and a ho, and away we go With rope and axe, and swags on backs. But old A.P. he said to me, "Oh . ... . watch in the sky for the big hogsbacks." HUS runs the refrain of a mountaineer’s parody of a sea shanty. And "A.P." is the author of this latest book. My generation of climbers knows Mr. Harper as a man whose first book,

Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand (1896) has been out of print for many years, whose love of the mountains has been such that he continued alpine work at an age when most men counted experiences of the snows in the past tense, and whose interest in the administration of mountaineering as @ sport has been forceful and lively, often to the point of controversy. Any evaluation of a man and his times is all the better for his reminiscences, and this new volume adds much for which an enquirer would have asked. His contemporary, G. E. Mannering, has done us similar service in writing two books. It is not too much to say that the first generation of New Zealand mountaineers could stand or fall by the written word of these two grand old men. And it has stood. For both Mannering and Harper were active young men in the ’nineties-an era when few young men were active in the mountains. Peak after peak stretched on the jagged skylines await‘ing men bold and strong enough to reach their summits. Mount Cook itself was virgin, and Mannerihg made fine attempts, only to be beaten near the top of the last ice-cap. Harper was capable of high climbing, but had decided to concentrate on Westland exploration. So they divided their ways, and the Southern Alps did not lose because each man became a specialist. [NTEREST in the life and times of A. P. Harper may be focused on his work in South Westland. Whoever reaches the great peaks and glaciers of the Main Divide by traversing dense bush and deep gorges in a climate

whose dominant characteristics are rain in thé valleys and mist, or worse, on the tops, goes the hard way. Yet it was the way that got the best from a man. And the story that Harper told in Pioneer Work is one of endurance that will endure. Memories gives us the background of training and circumstance that led to Harper’s explorations, further details of his experiences, and subsequent events to the present day that are all closely linked with the development of New Zealand mountaineering, and of its most widely spread club, the New Zealand Alpine Club.

If Memories has a narrative that is less stirring and less knit than Pioneer Work, it is because it has a wider appeal-an eppeal that, while ' embracing the specialised interest of mountaineering, will attract all who discover in 4 volume of reminiscences parts of life that have also affected them, or those who, having most of their life ahead of them, find much to study in the experiences of past generations. BEGIN, then, with the author when, in 1869, he wore his first pair of braces on the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Christchurch. And it takes any reader into the past to learn that on a visit to England with his parents he went to school there and was patted on the head by Disraeli. A return to school in Canterbury was followed by another visit to England, that time for a University education, which included an acquaintance with Lewis Carroll. On vacation from Oxford Harper made his first trip to Switzerland in 1887. His first climb was the Roche de Naye, 6700 feet; modest enough, but though it involved him and his companion in a minor accident, it must have been a red-letter day in a life that became devoted to mountains thousands of miles away. After reading for the Bar in London, he returned to Switzerland and climbed the Monch, and the Finisteraarhorn. It was natural that on going back to Christchurch he felt that the horizon was wide. Memories digresses on society life in the ‘nineties, a valuable picture whatever the political sympathies of the reader. But the most immediate interest (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) is aroused by a following chapter describing Harper’s reactions to the new fields ahead of him and his associates. [N 1889 Harper made his first visit to the Tasman Valley, where all the great mountains, including Cook, were unclimbed. He realised that the absence of huts, tracks and guidés made the Southern Alps vastly different from Switzerland, and that our lower snow line and looser rock would make some conditions strange. The transport delays of those days underline the pertinacity of the men who braved them. His visits with Mannering to Glacier Dome and the Murchison glacier were the first but important steps of entefprising young New Zealanders. And a. first ascent of the icy saddle at the head of the Hooker Glacier in 1890 confirmed the topographical point that Mount Cook lay wholly in Canterbury. As a corollary. to this work Mannering and Harper formed the New Zealand Alpine Club in 1891, whose Journal. is rightly sub-titled a "Record of Mountain Exploration and Adventure." Another visit to Switzerland in 1892 gave Harper experiencé in guideless climbing, atid put him in touch with the Alpine Club, London. This link with the old world and the new has been of; con-. tinuing value. In 1893. Harper began his Westland explorations with Charles Douglas-a ae ee

man whose company must have been an inspiration. Usually alone, Douglas had explored more Westland rivers than any other man before.or since. If published, his diaries would be of outstanding value. The incident of Harper’s association with Douglas are the most interesting of his Memories, with recollections of the bush, the goldfields, and the West Coast. road valuable as general bakes ground. me * * MOVE to Wellington took Harper away from the mountains, though he was still active in the interests of the New Zealand Alpine Club; and the introduction of his daughter Rosamond to the Southern Alps in 1926 must raise hopes in keen mountaineers’ with families of their own. Two yéars later Harper, his daughter, and three men made a crossing of Fyfe’s Pass to the Landsborough valley, and over a saddle and down the wild Karangarua river. which he had explored in 1894, This first-class expedition gave _ Rosamond experience for further good Bn ages In his last three chapters Har a brief survey of New Zealan cae taineering,) and an account of his holidays at camps organised by the New Zealand Alpine Club. The survey is reasonable, so far as it goes, and links names and dates with club influences that need not be disputed here. The influences, for instance, of tramping and ski-ing as sports goes far béyond mere

hut’ building, and theré is no mention of the manner in which stalking and hunting have also added greatly to the numbers. of men extremely competent in alpine climbing. N spite of present difficulties of paper and binding the printers have done well. The illustrations "vary from poor blocks ("Looking Down the Karangarua River") to ones of historical ‘value ("Douglas and. A.P.H."), and.a group of Otago men at the Rees Camp whose names are among the most honoured in New Zealand mountaineering. One omission I regret-a study of the author with G. E. Mannering. frontispiece is a study of which any subject orphotographer should be proud. Memories is not a great book. But it is an honest one, simply written, and will give pleasure to all those who like mémories and mountains. Its readers may well wish its author contentment that he has added his knowledge to their knowledge. He will be widely tead and widely appreciated.