VANDALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 296, 14 December 1936, Page 5

VANDALISM.

NATIVE FLOWERS. HEAVY PENALTIES URGED. VISITOR GIVES ADVICE. The imposition of heavy penalties ,on tourists destroying native vegetation, particularly wild flowers, was advised by Mr. L. W. Farmsworth, a director of the George Patterson Proprietary, Limited, one of the largest advertising agencies in Australia who arrived at Lyttelton on the Maungauni's first tourist cruise to the South Island. During the Maunganui's calls at Stewart Island and Dunedin Mr. Farmsworth noticed many instances of what he called vandalism among the passengers, states the "Press." "If you want to attract tourists to New Zealand you must do as other countries do, and impose heavy penalties for that sort of thing," he said. "You have a ibeautiful country to offer to tourists, but if you allow such destruction to go on you will soon have nothing to sell. "X was thoroughly ashamed of some of my countrymen on this tour," he added. "I noticed the taking of flowers and plants at Waitaki yesterday. Peoplt pick them and take them on the buses with them. They do not really want them. It is just the dreadful tourists' habit of taking what they see. Ido think you should take- strong steps to stop vandalism by tourists. Mr. Farmsworth, who has not visited the South Island before, said that in travelling all over the world he had not seen anything of exactly the same quality as the southern sounds. He could compare them only with the Norwegian fiordland, saying that on a smaller scale they were even more beautiful than Norway. "The wreat point is that Australia is so far away from the rest of the world," lie said, "that Australians should make in annual holiday in New Zealand, where there are attritions which compare •-ith those on the Continent and in other i nore distant parts." <