Australasia, New Zealand, A.P. Harper and the New Zealand

Publication Year: 1952.

A. P. Harper and the New Zealand A. C. The accompanying photograph of Arthur P. Harper, Honorary Member of the A. A. C., was taken by N. E. Odell at The Hermitage, hotel at 2500 ft. in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary meeting of the New Zealand Alpine Club, 2 June 1951. Mr. Harper founded the N. Z. A. C. in 1891. He is now 88 years old, but still very keen and interested in the Club and its members. The other man in the picture is L. V. Bryant, who was a member of the 1935 Mt. Everest “test” expedition. Mt. Sefton (10,360 ft.) rises in the background. Mt. Cook is out of sight to the right, about six miles N.

Mr. Harper’s Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand (1896) is in our library, as is also a complete set of the excellent journal of the N. Z. A. C. The Club is a strong, vigorous organization of about 800 members. Huts are built, often by the members themselves, and maintained by the various sections. Christchurch and Dunedin are almost within sight of the high mountains. Week-end climbing can be enjoyed from both. New ascents and even exploration have been possible on short vacations until very recently—and may still be. John Pascoe’s Unclimbed New Zealand (1939) is another fine book in our library.

Mr. Harper is to be heartily congratulated on the splendid club he founded, on the development of the sport of mountaineering in his country, and on his own long span of life. He is a living example to us of the benefits which can accrue from the pursuit of mountaineering as a recreation over a long period of years.

H. S. Hall, Jr.