SCENIC ATTRACTIONS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 188, 7 May 1931, Page 2

SCENIC ATTRACTIONS

Rangoon Visitor’s Praise

NEW ZEALAND’S CHARMS

“New Zealand is a country prevented only by her detachment from becoming the most popular touring centre in the world,” said Mr. W. J. Grant, editor of the “Rangoon Times,” Burma, in an interview in Auckland.

“I have been all over your fine land," said Mr. Grant, “and found it fair and good to look upon. It compares favourably with the Himalayas, which I have explored with some thoroughness, and is not eclipsed by Switzerland in grandeur, while in scenic variety it stands alone. The Himalayas are vaster in scale and their snows are greater iu mantling capacity, but I can assure you they are not more impressive. Even the Buller Gorge in the South Island has unique features. “The travel facilities in New Zealand also are, to me, amazingly good. We have certainly nothing like them in India or Burma, and my experience of European travel forbids me to claim any superiority for Italy or Switzerland. The fact that I managed to see the whole of the Napier, Rotorua, and Hamilton districts within a week speaks volumes for the dispatch and efliciency of railway and service car facilities.”

Mr. Grant is touring Australia and New Zealand in order to study political and economic conditions in these countries. He is an authority on agriculture.

“When aviation has developed and quickened travel,” he declared, “I am convinced that New Zealand’s scenic and other virtues will be more extensively recognised. She is'at present a lonely land stranded in a vast-ocean. The aeroplane will rescue her.” <