A resolution was made at the 2008 AGM to consult the membership on the future if the Park Morpeth Hut, and this is the background thinking to the recommendation the CMC Committee now puts to its members.
State of the Hut
The hut needs some maintenance to bring it to a satisfactory state, and pass the Selwyn Council compliance requirements.
These repairs are costed at $8,000. Much of this is helicopter time to take in materials. Many of the materials required are on site, and about half of the upgrade has already been done. This cost $14,000, again much of it transport, but $10,000 of this was a donation from the Canterbury Community Trust.
We have a legitimate title to 2 acres around the hut, and the paper document is in our safe deposit location. The committee considers this is a unique and valuable inheritance from the efforts of earlier members, and we should make all efforts to retain this title.
CMC & Huts
In its founding days and throughout the years the CMC built many huts (a list on the website lists 24) and many of these have been lost over the years, especially those in Arthur's Pass which is the birthplace of the CMC. The loss of Carrington especially is of significance as the oldest hut, built in 1926, and a memorial to our Founder. It would now have been 82 years old.
Park Morpeth
This is now 77 years old, our oldest hut, and was built as a memorial from funds given to the club by the family of the two young men drowned in the flooded Burnett stream. While Park Morpeth is not on a major mountaineering route, it is on one of the most classic routes many aspiring mountaineers follow to introduce them to the region. The CMC is kept a vibrant club by generations of young Canterbury people enjoying its accommodation as they find their way into the Arthur's Pass region on such routes.
Hut Maintenance
The CMC has a quite large fund comprising donations and bequests from members for the sole purpose of ensuring these huts are maintained. We cannot use these funds for other purposes. Our recent Patron Deryck Morse set up our Founders Trust and contributed significantly to it for just this purpose. Park Morpeth was a favourite of his. The funds required for the completion of the Park Morpeth compliance and upgrade will be covered from these Trust funds. The committee feels from the above that we have a strong responsibility to maintain this hut and our property title for the long term. There is no reason it cannot last well past its Centenary in 2031.
Deryck Morse lugging materials to a hut.
Reasons presented for not maintaining it seemed to be cost-based, but it will probably cost at least as much to remove the hut as repair it, so that does not make sense to us.
We are now asking for club members inputs via the following methods:
Closing date for this is Sept 18th
The committee will review responses and make its decision from these the following week.
Poll Wording:
I wish the CMC to maintain and defend the retention of Park Morpeth indefinitely as an operating Memorial Hut
Here is the link to the poll
