Dunedin’s Mayor Reaches London On Busy Tour

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 17

Dunedin’s Mayor Reaches London On Busy Tour

[From UM London correspondent of “The Press”!

LONDON, June 23.

Dunedin's ebullient Mayor, Sir Leonard Wright, and Lady Wright, have arrived in London with their enthusiasm for travel and meeting people unimpaired by a hectic month's tour of the United States, made partly with the assistance of the State Department. There, and during their short stay in the United Kingdom, they set out to meet many of their own frienfls and friends of New Zealand. During his United States tour. Sir Leonard Wright apparently missed no opportunity to promote interest in New Zealand both as a tourist country and a sound place for business investment In the midst of a frenzy of appointments on his arrival in London, between a visit to a West Ind tailor and answering a stack of correspondence from New Zealand, Sir Leonard Wright cheerfully stopped to talk about his American tour which amounted to a solid succession of talks, interviews, lunches, private visits and long-distance travel. On a 1400-mile drive in aireonditioned comfort across the United States, they had no less a guide than Mr James A. Fitzpatrick who has seen the “sun sink slowly in the west” on no fewer than 36 tours round the world while making his travel films. Sir Leonard Wright renewed an acquaintanceship which began when Mr Fitzpatrick visited New Zealand to make films. It also meant a visit to a film set in the Hollywood studios of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and meeting the film stars Charlton Heston and Debbie Reynolds—“and Gary Cooper.” added Lady Wright "Mr Fitzpatrick will almost certainly be visiting New Zealand in November this year to show some of his films about countries in the news, and to talk about them,” said Sir Leonard Wright “He is now working for television."

At Colorado Springs they watched water skiers who wore electrically heated suits to keep out the mountain cold; they surveyed the Grand Canyon from its north rim; and saw the Painted Deg«t in Arizona. "At Em Veps we made our humble contribution to what keeps the town going,” ■id Sir Leonard Wright “And we «w Harry Belafonte there.” ■id Lady Wright flew in a Viscount airliner from Wichita to Hutchinson in Kinffto.” said Sir Leonard Wright. Hie flight took seven minutes and a half, ground to ground. It n ody 45 mile* and we were stout to unfasten our safety belts after take-off when they told us we were about to land. We were ■naaed that the airline found the

tight worthwhile.” Sir Leonard Wright also had ■mething to say about jet plane ■rvices across the Pacific. After talking to airline officials, he was non convinced than ever that New Zealand could be left out of the tourist business that Ameri-

can jet services would bring to the Pacific if she continued to refuse them the right to pick up passengers in New Zealand for Australia, he said. “The jet time to New Zealand will be 14 hours when Pan American start a service to Sydney next September. New Zealand should not just be a stepping stone on the way to Australia, but a country which can be reached directly by American tourists and be regarded as a tourist attraction in itself. Because of war-time visits by Americans the Dominion is known in the United States to a degree quite out of proportion to its size. People wanted to know about our tourist resorts and they were more than interested to realise how far their dollar would go,” said Sir Leonard Wright. He gave several talks on New Zealand during his tour.