AMERICAN VISITORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 198, 22 August 1935, Page 22

AMERICAN VISITORS.

TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND

"A DELIGHTFUL COUNTRY."

"Wβ found New Zealand full of changes—even ilie weather, but yours is a "delightful country and we would have liked to seen more of it," said Mrs. E. Hotte,], organiser of the Hawaii section of a party of American tourists who sailed by the Niagara to-day after spending" 17 days in the Dominion.

Mrs. Hottel said that the arrangements for the tour had been splendidly carried out by the New Zealand Tourist Department, and with a guide as escort they visited Christchurch, the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers on the West Coast, the National Park, Waitomo , Caves and Rotorua. They had previously spent" a short holiday in Australia, and considered that the Dominion had much more to 'offer in its diversity of scenery and attractions.

"We met with kindness throughout New Zealand," said Mrs. ITottel. "Everybody seemed anxious to do all that they

could for us, we found the hotel accommodation excellent and we all agreed that the services received could not have been bettered." Comparisons With Hawaii. A young woman member of the party said that she had really enjoyed the cold, snappy weather in the North Island. She came from Hawaii, and it was in Newv Zealand that she had seen for the firet time a glacier and snow and hfid been in a blizzard. "New Zealand has many points in common with Hawaii," she added. "We have a similar legend to the A.aui one of the land being fished up from the sea, there is the same wealth of tree ferns, and both countries have a most interesting native population." Other members of the party spoke enthusiastically of the New Zealand scenery. They liked the bold features of the snow-clad Southern Alps and the Franz Josef glacier, but they were inclined to agree that Waitomo with its glow-worm lit caves was the most beautiful of all and one of them said it alone was worth coming all the way to Now Zealand to see. To those who saw at Rotorua thermal activity for the first time there was much of exceptional interest. It was

at Rotorua that they got their first "close up" impressions of the Maori people. They made friends with them, and they were very ■■litcrested in the native pa and made a study of native life. Educational Methods. One school teacher in the party took every opportunity to inquire into New Zealand educational methods and said that she was greatly impressed with the physique and happy appearance of the Now Zealand children. Americans at home were now getting much more information about the Dominion than had formerly been the case and to most people the general features of New Zealand were fairly well known. She had been surprised, however, at the extent of the Dominion and had no idea tliat it was so far away from Australia. She noted the different pronunciation of certain words, "schedule" and "ski-ing" being instances. She thought that in some respects the New Zealand children were learning considtirably from American films. In America and Hawaii the motion picture and radio were now giving much education although advertising over the air had a tendency to spoil the programmes.