Columnist’s riposte
Says Mr Ansell, of the Otago Motor Club, in a strain of amiable extravagance: "I had occasion some months ago to motor a city councillor through the streets of Dunedin, and afterwards he told me that he never knew there were so many d..... fools in Dunedin." This is quite in the vein of the motor-king who imagines himself to be monarch of all he surveys, whose right there is none to dispute. I am content to be with the harmless necessary pedestrian. We may be d..... fools, but we know something about the real significance of motor dangers and catastrophes. — by ‘Wayfarer’.
Hands off Milford
To the editor: Sir, In common with many others I look upon the proposal to utilise the Bowen Falls for the manufacture of nitrates as an outrage. The Milford Sound track, often spoken of as the "finest walk in the world," is one of the best scenic assets in New Zealand. After a succession of bounties, both varied and enchanting, the culmination is reached in the glories of Mitre Peak, the Bowen Falls and the Sound. The greatest charm of this wonderful scenery is that it is absolutely untouched, and that there is little or nothing to remind one of the hand of man. Erect a manufacturing plant at the Bowen Falls, and the place is vulgarised at once. Who wants to walk 30 miles to see a manufactory of nitrates?
The Tourist Department has received a grant of £2000 for additions to the huts on the Milford track. Surely the department must protest very strongly against any proposal which will seriously diminish the popularity of the track. Mr John Edie MP states that the area to be granted is only 30 acres — a very small area out of the vast acreage of the fiord land, which comprises two million acres. He omits to state that the flat land at the head of Milford Sound is extremely limited. There is very little ground at the foot of the Bowen Falls — even the flat land about the Accommodation House is of very small extent. Factories erected there would dominate and disfigure the whole landscape.
A nitrate plant might benefit the farming community, but would not compensate the townsman and the lover of beauty for the spoliation of one of the most delightful spots on the face of the earth. There are plenty of places where electrical power can be generated for the manufacture of nitrates, without disturbing a scene that should for ever be sacred. New Zealand as a tourist resort is in its infancy. What it may become in the not too distant future cannot be estimated. Many of our natural attractions have been seriously interfered with already. — I am, etc, F.R. Riley, George street, March 10. — ODT, 11.3.1925
Compiled by Peter Dowden
