AUSTRALIAN MAIL LINE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 27, 1 February 1910, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN MAIL LINE.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. ANDREW WEIR. Mr. Andrew Weir, head of the firm owning the Australian Mail Line, and other lines running in various parts of the world, arrived in Auckland on Saturday, and had a chat yesterday with a representative- of the "Auckland" Star." Mr. Weir is highly pleased with what' he has seen of New Zealand, and has great hopes for the future of the Dominion. He said: "I motored over from Napier to Rotorua, going via Taravvera, Wairaki, and Wairoa. I am very much impressed with the wonderful variety of scenery that you have in New Zealand. The possibilities of the development of the tourist traffic in a country like this, where the scenery is so fine and also so varied, must be very great. I am quite certain that the wonders of this country are not even yet fully understood at Home and in America, or there would be a very large stream of tourists coming here each year. There are, however several things that want attention to make this country more popular with tourists. For instance, there is the question of the roads. Most tourists now like to run round by motor, and to do that comfortably there must be better roads than 1 had to pass over ou the run from Napier to Rotorua. You have no idea of the value of the tourist traffic to a country like yours. 1 saw in print the other Jay that the Americans spend £00,0011.000 each year in Europe. Just think how it would alter tne affairs here if even five millions of that expenditure came your way; but, as I said before, you require better, roads for motoring, and also finer hotels in the outside places. I can tell you that some of the bends we had to negotiate on the roads I have recently been over were very sharp, but the scenery was really magnificent."

"I suppose that yours is not entirely a pleasure trip?" ''Oh, no. 1 am combining business with pleasure, and I leave by the Maheno this evening for Sydney, and from there 1 go through the East to China and Japan. 1 shall have about twelve months of journeying before I got home." "Can you tell mc something regarding your line of steamers'/" "It is our intention to put on larger and faster steamers as soon as the trade improves between San Francisco and NewZealand. 1 may say that 1 am vastly impressed with the future possibilities of tliis country, and although 1 do not believe that you c-an make men sober by Act of Parliament, I must admit that 1 consider this is the best country I have been in so' far as freedom from drunkenness is concerned. 1 have scarcely seen any drunken men about the streets in the whole of my trip through i New Zealand."