HOTELS IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26727, 10 May 1952, Page 2

HOTELS IN NEW ZEALAND

VIEWS OF ENGLISH VISITOR CRITICISM AND PRAISE New Zealand hotels were both praised and criticised by Mr Aiken Watson, Q.C., of London, who is the Recorder of Colchester, Essex, before he left Harewood yesterday after spending 10 days in New Zealand. In that time he travelled extensively by air and car. Giving his impressions of New Zealand, Mr Watson said: “Your food is excellent, but you don’t drink enough wine. Your whisky is very weak and your cigarettes are cheap, but you don’t keep good cigars. “The food and service In hotel dining rooms are first-class, but I wish you would improve your bedrooms

and install more showers,” said Mr Watson. “An hotel bedroom I used in a town of a fair size was like a museum. The double bed appeared to have been used for a long time by someone of great weight, as it showed signs of a deep depression. There was no bedside table, and to switch off the light the occupant had to get out of bed. The place was generally dull and dingy. “We don’t like your system of exclusive booking and the way that you have to go cap in hand to the management when you want to have a visitor to dinner. In Europe and America conditions are a little different from that. It is the sort of thing that takes away one’s feeling of freedom when on holiday.” In Christchurch. Mr Watson said, he stayed at an excellent hotel where he had a bathroom attached to his room, and the receptionist had not been able to do enough for him.

“I like the people of New Zealand very much,” he continued. ”As one on his first visit to the Antipodes I have found them charming and most helpful. “Finally, I believe every tourist who comes to New Zealand should read ‘N to Z,’ as it gives a very good background to much in New Zealand life." A companion of Mr Watson’s said it would be unfair if his criticism was taken to apply to all hotels in New Zealand, as he had not stayed at all the best hotels in New Zealand Il was unfortunate, he said, that over seas visitors were not always booked in at the best hotels in every centre. Mr Watson visited America before coming to New Zealand, and on his way back to England will visit India and Ceylon. As Recorder Mr Watson tries criminal cases four times a year.