CHARMS OF N.Z.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19326, 2 June 1928, Page 21

CHARMS OF N.Z.

EULOGY BY PROFESSOR GRANT. "UNSPOILED, UNVULGARISED" (revolt oua owx cobhespoitoest.) LONDON, April 18. Professor A. J. Grant, recently returned from New Zealand to Leeds, appreciates the "New Zealand News"— the recently established fortnightly paper which gives news of New Zealand and its people to New Zealand readers-resident in the Mother Country as well as in other parts of the world. It has provided Professor Grant with information which he has found useful, and which probably would never otherwise have reached him. Besponding to a personal request for his views on New Zealand as a tourist centre, Professor Grant to-day writes:— The subject—New Zealand as a tourist centre —is an attractive one, for it recalls very many happy days spent in one of the most lovely countries in the world. But it must bo remembered that there are many sorts of tourists; and it is extremely and sometimes amusingly dangerous to give advice without knowing the tastes of its recipient. While I was in the Dominion the attractions of deep-sea fishing were much advertised, and the papers had many pictures of happy tourists standing among piles of dead fish. These advertisements and these pictures acted on me as a strong deterrent. I think I should have tried to revisit the Bay of Islands, which had seemed an earthly paradise thirteen years ago, if I had not read some of these articles to which I have alluded. I have no objection to sport at all, but I dislike it; and all opportunities of killing fish or rabbits or deer or foxes act upon my imagination as the reverse end of the magnet. What I love with a love that has not weakened with years is "the common growth of mother earth" —woods and rivers, seas and mountains, birds and beasts and fishes living and happy. And for a tourist with such tastes it is difficult to know where to begin in speaking of the charms of New Zealand. A friend to whom I was giving an account of my travels told me that I had missed the three things most worth seeing in the Dominion, which were, in his judgment (a judgment in which I had every confidence) the bush of Stewart Island, the Franz Josef Glacier, and the Sounds of the south-west. I believe he was right, and I was particularly sorry to have missed Stewart Island. I beard such a descnption of the sandflies of Milford Sound that mv regrets are a little modified. I had to" choose between the Glacier and Mount Cook, and I am not sure that I chose wrongly. Unspoiled Beauty. In my judgment the special charm of New Zealand for the tourist is that there you can find some of the most beautiful country in the world, nearly unchanged, unspoiled by human occupa- ' tion, unvulgarised. Such words sound perhaps cynical, but I do not think they necessarily bear that sense. One may love one's fellow-man, and yet want to escape from him in the mass at times £ I rather think that the more you-love him tho more you will want to escape from him occasionally. In England and even in Europe it is getting very difficult to find a country with this sense j of remoteness; and of course the face of New Zealand has been immensely changed by the white man.. I wonder whether you can find» anywhere a scene —except*in the high mountains—of which you can ; say, "Even so it must have looked while Europe was still undreamed of.',' But there are plenty of places where something like that feeling is experienced. I heard Professor Wall speak of his wanderings in the Nelson province and heard with envious . amazement of the glories that still await the pedestrian who, along with hfs other provisions, can put youth into his rucksack. It is difficult to begin to speak of the charm of New Zealand, and it is still more difficult to end. I- will give myself the pleasure of recalling three places whose grandeur and beauty linger with special vividness in my memory. I would not have missed Tekapo on any account. The glorious distant views, the strange un-English, unEuropean scenery, the glory of the warm sun after bitterly cold nights, the fascinating history of the Mackenzie country, a delightful hotel and hotel-keeper, combined to make it an ideal place for a holiday to a tourist of my tastes. Then there is WairakeL We hesitatnd to go there, for we knew Eotorua pretty well, and we thought it Would be a j replica of that. But we found that tho interest of the place was by no means confined to its marvels, which are perhaps too exclusively advertised. Lake and river and mountains made it a stimulating memory quite apart from the geysers and boiling pools, which are, however, of extraordinary interest. And, lastly, we can never forget Queen Charlotte Sound and the portage. It was almost by accident that we came' there, but if ever we were to go to New Zealand again there is no spot, in all the islands that we should more desire to revisit. I find it quite impossible to analyse the elements which. make up the charm of natural beauty, but I think they are 1 all to be found there. I hope we shall never forget the amazing views, the light on mountain and sea and sky; but even more than these perhaps we shall remember the singing of the tni birds in the bush, the wild clematis, and the warm friendliness of our entertainments. A Criticism. [ "More English than England," people say of New Zealand, with much truth; but it does not apply to the scenery. The New Zealanders, however, are thoroughly and ultra-English in the • way in which they mar some of the most beautiful views by the horror of chocolate wrappings, cigarette cases, and sandwich papers. Would that they would take warning by us while yet the task is a light one I