“SPLASHING” THE EPIDEMIC

Evening Star, Issue 22559, 29 January 1937, Page 8

“SPLASHING” THE EPIDEMIC

AMERICAN PRESS DISTORTION EFFECT OH TOURIST TRAFFIC “ Dunedin people do not seem to realise the effect this infantile paralysis epidemic scare will have on tourist traffic. The scare has been magnified out of all proportion, and when there is only one case in Dunedin it is five by the time it reaches Auckland and a dozen in America. In the States the Press is ‘ splashing ’ the epidemic, and I have had numbers of cablegrams inquiring how my family and I are surviving the ‘ national calamity,’ said Mr George M. Dillon, general manager for New Zealand of Warner Bros., who is at present in Dunedin with Mr L. H. Roos making colour travelogues of the Dominion. It was anticipated that the Pacific Coast strike would he over by April, and Americans were already preparing summer tours. New Zealand was an ideal place for a holiday. The country possessed everything—“ it contained all natural beauties wrapped up in a small package.” Rear-Admiral Byrd had done wonderful publicity work for New Zealand, as had many travellers, but all that publicity, including any that might be gained from the travelogues at present being 11 shot ” was lost through the epidemic scare. “ In New Zealand people think that Chicago residents go round with a gun in their hip pockets. Well, in the same way American people think that New Zealand residents are dying off by the hundreds. Even in your own country people Relieve that Dunedin has 1,100 cases, while one Christchurch man informed me that there was ‘ black plague ’ in this city.” President Roosevelt, who was afflicted by infantile paralysis and was a cripple, had done more to_ alleviate the suffering than any person in the States. Out of his own pocket he had bought some hot springs m Georgia, which to some extent helped persons suffering from the paralysis, and every year in all parts of the country a President’s ball was held, the proceeds from which went towards research and cures. No charge for using the hot springs was made. “It will take months to overcome this epidemic scare, and your tourist trade will be badly hit,” concluded Mr Dillon. ‘‘lt is not the epidemic itself that has caused the scare, but the exaggerated reports, which will take a long time to live down.”