AMERICAN HITS AT N.Z.

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27443, 1 September 1954, Page 3

AMERICAN HITS AT N.Z.

“Thirty Years Behind The Times”

Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, August 30. New Zealanders are 30 years behind the times and few of them know it, a Chicago “Tribune” correspondent says today in an article giving hints to Americans on travel in the South Seas. The correspondent, Walter Simmons, was the newspaper’s representative in the South Pacific during World War n. Simmons says that New Zealand women “wear shapeless dresses” and that their hair “seems to have been cut with shears.” It is necessary to triple check travel arrangements generally in the South Pacific, but with New Zealand bookings a fourth check is required, he says. Simmons describes as “perhaps the greatest travel bargain in the world” the 10-day cruise of the Polynesian Islands by the New Zealand “banana ships”—the Tofua and Matua. The only difficulty, he says, is that the Tofua and Matua, as well as Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel—“the only half-way passable hotel” in the city—are controlled by the Union Steam Ship Company. The company, he says, is “noted for holding bananas in higher esteem than human travellers. But, if a traveller once gets aboard either ship he is assured of ample meals and cheap drinks.” Simmons adds that the New Zealand Government-owned airline, Tasman Empire Airways, is noted for its in-efficiency—-“even by New Zealand travellers.”