OURSELVES AND OUR VISITORS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 1521, 10 February 1891, Page 2

OURSELVES AND OUR VISITORS.

By James. [Contributed]. It was quite refreshing to read your article on the above subjeot in a late issue. It shows plainly that in this beautiful garden of E len of ours, whose spontaneous fruits and soft balmy air seem to have lulled the inhabitants into a happy, listless, dreamy state, it has become a great effort for them to move- There is at least one gaunt restless spirit who cannot sleep, and who wanders noisily among the sleepers urgiug them to bestir themselves. Yet for all the pulling and shaking, they only roll over and moaning cry " What's 'er good of it all ? The fruit is gone, its so warm and comfortable here, do let us sleep on I This may be all very fine, but it cannot Inst much longer; or we shall wake up hungry some morning and find there is no breakfast to be had. Then we shall surely die, and the melancholy prophecy will be realised.

I hope, when the future proprietor ia pointing out the site of the once flourishing Mail Office, he will tell the tradition of its greatest editor, who, in the largeness of hie heart, took the whole town on his back, and sried to lift it out of itself. But the effort was too much. It strained him, and he fell buck dead.

Circumstances have proved that it ia useless to waste time in trying to make Akaroa prosperous by industries and trade. Its physical position practically prohibits this. It is so easy now to communicate with Christchuroh from the Bnys that they go past us. Bat, thank Heaven, there ia corn in Egypt still if we only cultivate the right plant. Let us strike out a new line for ourselves. Surely the old one is not so dipp that we cannot get out of it. Cinnot we make the most of its natural beauties ? Still, it would be madness to go to large expense in providing boats, etc., unless the travellers know they are here, and come. This is what I would propose to turn the stream of tourists on to our little town. Get a firxt claa3 photographer to take the best of the towD end harbor. This could be dope without troubling the city fathers, and' with very little expense. Let a euffbient number of the residents guarantee to take copies Arrange with the photographer to place views of a smaller eiie in large frames, with a description beneath, stating we have cricket, tennis, fishing, boating, baths, and Chinese lanterne if you like, though not necessarily.. Give the distance from Cnrietchurch -with the return fares, and let the leading hotels be mentioned and their terms. These should be as reasonable ac possible, for I know of enquiries being made, and people having to forego the trip because of the cost. If several euch frames well got np weie hong in those Chrietchurch hotels most frequented by tourists (in places like the railway station people are in too much of a hutry to examine, whereas at the hotels they have leisure) lam sure there are hundrede of tcuriste passing up and down New Zealand who would be only too glad to step aside did they know of our charming nook. The present policy of the Union Company in leaving Akaroa out of its guides to tourists, and potting on old boats almost amounts to a boycott, and the sooner the agent wakes to the fact the better. Once we got the stream on the rest would soon follow. The band would spring into existence, and those evenings in the domain, which were bo beautifully sketched out, would be realised. In course of time some of our daughters—of which, as you know, we have plenty—might join the travelling troupes How pleasant it would be to get their letters from the old world ? Yet they would see no plnce like Akaroa, end would tell everyone co, and reuommeDd travellers to come. What a splendid travelling advertisement ! But this is not all the odour from the feast and the sound of the revellry would be scented iby the country mice who oreep in on domain nights to their moonlight music. It is said that " music has charms to soothe the savage, to rend a turnip, and split a cabbage." How then might it not splinter the heart of a bumpkin under the benign influence of the moon's pale beam o'er the Chinese lanterns? with just a little encouragement from the fair girl. The mueic would whisper '• Oh ! love, dear love be true, this heart is only thine," and do would he. We had nothing so romantic in the old days—l wieh I was young again. How many of us met our fate in broad daylight ? not much ; we were too wide awake then. Yet wo would be happy too for that problem of problems which has secretly been troubling us " what shall we do with our girls ?" would be solved satisfactorily. They and the visitors would be like the London market with our cheese and butter, take all that we can produce providing the article is good. Our work would not have : been in vain. The coaches would come, crowded every day. The little shops woild give place to im posing boarding 1 houses, and from' its present languid state.Akaroa would develop into a crowded fashionable watering place. This ie the corn for£ur Egypt! Something over five thousand fares were booked jtip the West Coast, besides those paying by the way. This ie only because it is cracked up. Cannot we bag some of this ? Nor is oven this all. The fleet would; then call ofener and stay longer ; for I firmly believe that it is the want— the nobe will forgive me for eaying co— of '' officer's society," *fcieh they get in the lurger towns that tenders all Mr Joyce's endeavors unavailing.

The snowball has now begun fnirly fo roll, Mr O'Oallaghan and his friends are pushing vigorously. Let us keep it going and see that it does not burst. James Haya '' keep right nn Jake,"