Such is the emphatic opinion of Messrs W. L. Logie, W. R. Sinclair, and Mrs W. R. Sinclair, of Dunedin, who, with Guide J. Edgar, have just completed a delightful walking tour from Elfin Bay to Paradise.
Leaving Queenstown on February 12, the party disembarked at Elfin Bay at noon, and that afternoon covered the 11 miles to Greenstone Hut, via the beautiful Rere Lake and the Greenstone Gorge.
Next day the Lake Howden Hut, 15 miles distant, was made at the close of a bracing walk along the banks of the emerald-hued Greenstone River.
Through the noble birch forest skirting Lake McKellar, the dazzling pinnacle of Mount Christina formed a magnificent landmark during the earlier part of the journey. Sunday, ushered in by lightning flashes and peals of thunder which shook the hut and seemed like to bring the mountains tumbling about the intruders' heads, was a day of rain, which kept the travellers indoors around a roaring fire.
The succeeding days, like the first two, provided the choicest summer weather.
On Monday the sidelings skirting the Hollyford Valley were traversed, the Earland Falls and Lake Mackenzie being passed, and a stiff climb up the untracked slope of Ocean Peak accomplished to the junction with the track over the Harris Saddle to the Routeburn Huts.
The gorgeous panorama of the Hollyford Valley, flanked by majestic ice-clad peaks carrying the view past Lake McKerrow out to the Pacific Ocean, was in itself a sufficient return for the day's walk of 16 miles.
The verdant Routeburn Valley made buoyant spirits and light footsteps next morning until the Dart was reached, and the travellers were conveyed across by trap, the 14-mile stage from Routeburn Huts to Paradise being completed by noon.
''I am very disagreeably surprised to find so much of the New Zealand native bush is fast disappearing,'' said Danish naturalist Dr Mortensen in a lecture at the Philosophical Society's meeting at Palmerston North on Thursday night.
''Where is the huia? That unique bird has gone because the bush has gone. In place of the native birds are the blackbird and the sparrow.
''People do not realise that it is their duty to preserve New Zealand's native bush.''
The large number of boys and girls proceeding to the high schools in Dunedin for free secondary instruction is a satisfactory feature of the education system of the present day.
At the Boys' High School there are 400 pupils, as against 389 at the commencement of the first term last year.
This number includes 42 boarders at the rectory, or 10 more than last year. At the Girls' School there are 229 pupils, as against 212 last year.
Mr T. K. Sidey, M.P., chairman of the Board of Governors, considers the increases this year very gratifying, as indicating the confidence of the public in both schools - a confidence which is amply justified by the marked efficiency of the institutions.
He is of opinion that it will be necessary to proceed at once with the erection of two new class rooms for the Boys' School. - ODT, 19.2.1915.
