Norfolk Is. Popular

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 21

Norfolk Is. Popular

"The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, June 15. Enterprising New Zealanders are playing a big part in the tourist boom on Norfolk Island. New Zealanders who flew to the islands for the Bounty Day celebrations last week were surprised at the number of their fellow countrymen among* the permanent residents. The former British convict settlement is administered by Australia and financed by the Commonwealth, but many of the New Zealanders living on the island are making a valuable contribution to its economy. There are New Zealanders running taxis and rental cars, hotels and dutyfree stores, a rock-crushing plant and

various small businesses. Aircraft from New Zealand, besides flying in two-thirds of the tourists, also bring in .butter, meat and building materials.

Many of the customers of the five land agents on the island are New Zealanders anxious to retire to a subtropical paradise. A firm of New Zealand surveyors is kept busy sending staff over from time to time to keep pace with the demand for sections.

This week a party of tradesmen will leave Auckland for Norfolk Island to build a £130,000 hotel. The 70-bed, two-storey South Pacific Hotel has been designed by an Auckland firm of architects, Messrs Rigby Mullan, for Mr T. K. Collard, owner of the Awanui Hotel, Northland. It will have a swimming pool and a golf course and is being built by a Whangarei contractor, Mr T. Tindle. It is expected to be finished by Christmas.

Nearly 6000 tourists visited the island last year, the majority of them New Zealanders attracted by the climate and the duty-free shopping. New Zealanders have no Gold Coast to retreat to for a winter holiday and have

been more easily attracted to Norfolk Island than Australians. New Zealand honeymoon couples have favoured the island for some years now.

The Australian airline Qantas has been publicising the island in recent months and it is likely that Australian visitors may eventually outnumber New Zealanders. There were 86 per cent more Australian tourists to the island last year than in the previous year as against 49 per cent more New Zealanders. The total tourist increase was 63 per cent. There was talk of making the island an international pleasure resort by turning the disused cable station into a gambling casino. An overseas syndicate was reported to be interested in the proposal but the islanders were not enthusiastic and the cable station has since become a hotel.

But even without a casino Norfolk Island has sufficient attractions for visitors. The Bounty Day celebrations commemorating the landing of the 182 migrants from Pitcairn Island are hardly likely to rival the more flamboyant festivities of Tahiti’s Bastile Day but they make a pleasant interlude.