MILFORD SOUND TRACK.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17057, 31 January 1921, Page 6

MILFORD SOUND TRACK.

CRITICISM OF TOURIST DEPARTMENT.

(SPECIAL TO "THE PRESS.") AV.CLLINGTON, January 30.

The article in '''The Press,/' Christchurch, giving the experiences of Mr Jameson on' the Milford Sound "track this season have attracted a good deal of attention. A man who is keen on developing our scenic resources in the interests of our own people as well as in the interests of visitors from other countries, tells me that he ilind a simijar experience lust season. With a view to relieving the congestion, he suggests that the Department should open up the track from Milford Sound to LakeWakatipu. Huts and a bridge in one place riro urgently needed, and he suggests that 'the Queeustown people, ; in their own interests, should do something in this dirction. The local County Council might at leabt put up a wire suspension bridge. Apparently,, lowever, though they have been urged to do something, the local' authorities aro slow to move.

iGt'Bieraily, tourists, complain of a want.of comfort, botlh. in travel and in accommodation along.somc of the tourist routes. They. also_ complain of the difficulty in getting reliable information. Only the other day a man who went to the Tourist Information Bureau in the capital, to get information about the rainbow trout fishing in the Taupo district, was told' that tlhey had no information, and was referred j-o a loral fishing tackle firm. He then asked for a map of Luke Taupo, which is possibly tho finest scenic and angling district in tho North Island, but all the D-spavtmcnt could produce M - as a small outline tnan of the Island, on which Lake Taupo" is represented by an out'ins less than an inch long. While there is, probably, at. the present time little money available for the improvement of tourist resorts, there should he no excuse for such a lack of information at the Central Bureau. At Mount Cook there is still insufficient accommodation for the number of people who wish to visit that locality, and climbers who are outte prepared to rnupfi it a bit, nnd '"nr.not afford to pay the present Hermitage tariff of £1 a clay, are of opinion that ac.-ommoda-Uon at a cheaper rate might be provided m hutments erected near the Hermitage More huts, also, are wanted m the glacier valleys

Two visitors from abroad—Dr H Cropley, F.R.G.S.. of Northampton, and Mr K. 0. Leake, of Johannesburg —who wore over the Milford track re" centlv, told Mr \V. B. Steel (secretary of the Otago Expansion League)- that the trip won- than fulfilled their 'ex* pectations, and they wore loud in their praise of the magnificent eeenerv. They say that the 'accommodation at Te Anau Hotel and at fiiade House leaves nothing to be desired, but regret to report that in the huts things are not so comfortable. They complain that the blankets were not drain, and that the food was'stata and unappetising. Mr Steel has sent on their report to the mann.crei of th fc Tourist Department also drawing attention to the need of a larger steamer on T« Anau, and to the suggestion made by many touri.-ts that they would be clad to stay at Glade if fioaH w«-o procurable in which to enioy the advantages that the lake offers in the way of boating, fishics, and so on. The League hopes that Since- the present season has been such a good one, tho 'Department will feel justified in making still better provision for the future.