The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1932. LOSSES AND INDIRECT GAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 237, 6 October 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1932. LOSSES AND INDIRECT GAINS.

/•of /fte cause-that lacks assistance, For the tcrong that needs resistance, For fhe future in the distamx, And the good that we can do.

The operations of the Agricultural Department and of the Department of Scientific Research were cited here a day or two ago as illustrating the difficulty of measuring benefits derived from State expenditure. A reduction in the meagre amount spent in scientific research might cost New Zealand millions in frustrated discovery or invention. The section of the report dealing with tourist traffic and national publicity Avork raises similar questions. The Commission has examined the accounts of various resorts in which the State is financially involved, found that most of them show a deficit, and advised that the State cut its losses.

The pz'oblem, however, is not so easy of solution as this. The returns from this expenditure are indirect, widely diffused, and not - capable of strict accounting. It is estimated that oversea tourists spend £825,000 in New Zealand. The Commission reports that the net loss to the Tourist Department, including publicity costs, is £89,000. This is a high percentage of the indirect benefit, but to the latter has to be added what is spent by New 'Zealanders themselves on holidays in their own country. Moreover, New Zealand should not be concerned with the immediate results alone. The traffic is capable of enormous expansion. A high authority has estimated that the proceeds from it should rise to seven millions a year. It is quite certain we shall not work it up to anything like that figure unless we advertise our country freely and judiciously and see to it that visitors are well accommodated.

'The question arises how much should be done by tho State and how much by private enterprise. The Commission recommends that the development of the traffic and the control of hostels should be left to private enterprise, and in one conspicuous case, that of the Hermitage, private control has proved much more enterprising than the State. No doubt private enterprise and local bodies would do more for tourists if they were encouraged, and it is gratifying to note that in Te Aroha the suggestion that the Domain should be taken over by the Borough Council has been welcomed. On the other hand, private enterprise cannot be expected to maintain accommodation houses that do not pay for themselves, even if they are necessary to the operation of a series of resorts, in which ease, if the State does not shoulder the burden, the ultimate general loss, direct and indirect, may be considerable., The Commission cites the losses on Glade House, Milford Hostel and the intervening huts, and recommends that these should be closed. But, as the Dunedin "Star" points out, to shut up these places of accommodation, which are. loaded with unavoidably heavy costs of transport, would be virtually to close down "the finest walk in the world" altogether. If this was the outcome, one great inducement to oversea tourists to visit New Zealand would be removed, and many interests, including the Government itself, would feel the loss of tourist expenditure. Similarly, a , tourist attracted to New Zealand by the unique possessions of Rotorua may spend money all through the country. In Rotorua and elsewhere there may be room for improvement in the system of controlling attractions and the distribution of financial liability, and it may be possible to devise some arrangement by which private enterprise takes a larger share of responsibility, to the benefit of all parties, but just because the State is losing £89,000 a year, directly on the tourist traffic, New Zealand should not overlook its indirect value and its possibilities of expansion.