TRAVEL BY CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 194, 17 August 1936, Page 3

TRAVEL BY CAR.

SEEING NEW ZEALAND [■HE CASE FOR THE TOURIST. RESTRICTIONS CRITICISED. The possibility of encouraging tourists to travel through New Zealanc in their own cars, and provided a different system of registering visitors' cars is introduced, was mentioned by Mr. T. W. .Mitchell, the captain of the Australian ski team which arrived by the Aurangi from Sydney this morning An admirer of the scenic beauty o: the Dominion and one who has. travelled through the country extensively by motor ear, Mr. Mitchell commented or the restrictions which retarded this mode of travel by tourists, and suggested that it might be possible for ar arrangement to be made whereby New Zealand licenses would be recognised ir Australia, and vice versa. He said lie would like to come to New Zealand al some later date and visit places whicli fie had not been able to include in his iast itinerary, and lie would do so iJ only the New Zealand authorities would give him "a decent go with the registration of his motor car." At present, he said, the visitor wit! u car had to get off at the Bluff, find the post office in a strange country, pay foi a, set of number plates for the whole year, and procure a driver's license. He aid not mind paying for a license for the period he used the roads of the Domi uion, but he thought it was too mucli to ask the visitor to secure a license foi the full twelve months. The travellei abroad bought an international driving license, and that took him through man) countries. While in Australia and New Zealand there was no need for a visitoi :o secure an international driver's license he suggested that some arrangement might be made between the two countries whereby they would recognise each other's licenses. Mr. Mitchell added that he had wasted lialf a day at Bluff fulfilling his licensing obligations, and the whole thing was made hard for the visitor in this way He felt that something could profitably be done to improve conditions and perImps a guarantee with respect to the licensing of visitors' cars could be giver through the New Zealand and Australian Travel Associations. "I saw more of New Zealand by using my own car than I would have done by travelling in any other way," he said "and I think some such arrangement as I have suggested would have the effect of attracting more tourists to New Zealand with cars. Travel by one's own cai means that one stops at the country hotels, "and this provides tourist traffic that country towns do not normally

receive."