TOURISTS AMD NATIONAL CHARACTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 6

TOURISTS AMD NATIONAL CHARACTER.

The remarks of Mr. J. W. Shaw about the danger of "New Zealanders becoming a race of flunkeys if this country becomes a tourist resort" are, in my opinion, utter nonsense Surely Mr. Shaw knows that New Zealanders are not built that way. It is a matter of criticism already that we are too independent in nature to give our visitors the attention they have been in the habit of receiving from" other countries visited. The average New Zealander is no more flexible at the hips than at the knees, and even if it were different the proportion of our people who would come in contact with tourist traffic is so small comparatively that there is not the slightest cause for Mr. Shaw's anxiety. Switzerland, which values its tourist traffic at £38.000,000, has 6000 hotel employees engaged in catering for tourists, and no one who has visited that country would describe the Swiss people as subservient or cringing. Tourist traffic is a national asset and is much sought after by countries whose administration is much wiser than our own. Canada's gain from that source alone is shown in the enormous sum of £41,000,000, in spite of the recent statement of the Canadian Commissioner that his country had nothing like the attraction for tourists that New Zealand has. Tourists spend £30,000,000 per annum in Hawaii, while we are content to accept such statements as those of Mr. Shaw and be satisfied with a paltry £1,000,000 per year. Fifteen years ago we. had some 17,000 visitors from Australia every year, but the attractions held out by Ceylon, Honolulu and Java have deprived us of a lar®e number of these. Our Publicity Department is making a belated effort to regain the.attentions of touring Australians by a big drive with lectures, motion pictures, magazine articles and posters. If only the Union Steamship Company would assist by cheaper fares instead of hampering the efforts of the Publicity Department by maintaining the present high rates, tourist money would soon commence to flow into this country. What a wonderful help £30,000,000 would be just now! A portion of it might even be spent in an endeavour to galvanise the Reform hack and give it sufficient strength to meet the hurdles in the Election Steeplechase this year. Anyway, Mr. Shaw need have no fear. The New lives near enough to Nature to be courteous without becoming vulgar.

THE MORE THE MERRIER.