The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1903 AKAROA AS A PLEASURE RESORT.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIII, Issue 2752, 24 February 1903, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1903 AKAROA AS A PLEASURE RESORT.

We read in Saturday's' Lyttelton Times' that Hanmer has been providing every form of amnsement possible for its visitors. The new hall and tea rooms are a great success and the visitors, themselves, have set to work to entertain each other, with the result that people of all tastes have come away satisfied with their trip.

If Akaroa would only rouse itself and work to make the place more attractive to visitors, this wnuld be a most successful watering place. We have wonderful natural advantages, the climate is as good as it can be and the scenery very beautiful; but we want to help Nature a little.

Strangers frequently leave Akaroa, ond when they are asked if they admired Tikau Bay or Wainui, reply that they have not heard of them. No visitor ought to be allowed the chance of saying such a thing. Very often people come down hero for a quiet time, and prefer to kill time by doing absolutely nothing ; but anyone at all energetic should at least b3 told that there are many beautiful spots worthy of a visit. We do not want to worry our visitors by dragging them, against their will, to see our local sights; but if we wish to make our town at all attractive, we should try and satisfy all tastes. The majority of pleasure-seekers, who visit Akaroa, are only too willing to see all the scenic beauty passible, and the townspeople should co-operate to smooth all difficulties in the way of such Nature-hunters. Excursions should be got up in which all the boarding'houses should join and the visitors taken to different places of interest. These things need enterprise, and above all, patience ; but when did a combin- i ation of enterprise and patience fail, except when the game was not worth the candle ? In this case the game is worth the candle. We hear that a greater number of people travelled down to Akaroa by the coach this year than have come to this town during the previous two years. It is our scenery and climate which draws visitors and they should go away thoroughly impressed with them.

ply and are on the way to get an efficient drainage system, wo can speak of Akaroa as a thoroughly healthy place ; and we should not lose sight of the fact that we are strong enough now to compete against Hanmer. Apart from the improvement in the schemes of acquainting our visitors with the natural beauties of Akaroa, there is another mode of entertainment which is entirely neglected. If visitors do not care for boating or walking picnics, there is no other out-door amnsement thrown in their way. At one time, visitors were taken down to the tennis courts, but, now, even tennis seems a thing of the past. Many people must go away unaware of the fact that Akaroa possesses any tennis courts and quite ready to swear that there is no such thing as an Akaroa Tennis Club. The townspeople should resuscitate the dying tennis club for the sake of the visitors alone. A little energy in this direction would benefit themselves in every way; it would shew strangers they were fond of out-door games, and would help visitors to pass away many pleasant hours.

It is a great pity that Akaroa has not some other courts as well. We are in great need of a public croquet ground, where many who do not cave for such violent exercise as tennis demands, might amuse themselves for days together. Of course, the forming of a croquet court would require time and money; but these could be made to repay their outlay over and over again.

At Hanmer, one of the events of the .summer season is a quoit tournament among the visitors. This is got up by one of the residents and causes much amusement to all. In Akaroa we have nothing of this sort. We let our visitors come and go without so much as asking if they would care for such thing?. The only way to arrange any such games is to form a local club and allow strangers to join. Once the towns people made anything like a success of their club, they wonld soon find there were many visitors only too glad play with them. What we want to do, then, i.. to rouse up our dying clubs and form new ones. If we do not want to be left very far behind in the race of watering places, some attempt must be made to remove from visitors' minds the idea that we cannot provide any interest for them, beyond that afforded by the natural scenery of the town.

Now that we have a good water sup-