“WONDERFUL PEOPLE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 September 1928, Page 2

“WONDERFUL PEOPLE”

AMERICAN VISITOR’S TRIBUTE.

“You have got a wonderful country and the people in it are more wonderful still. I tell you honestly no halo that God could give them would be too good.” Such was the opinion of New Zeahind and New Zealanders expressed by an American visitor (says the “Dominion”). “What strikes me most,” he continued, “js the wonderful spirit of hospitality that is evident wherever one goes. You are welcomed as a brother by everyone. I have never seen anything like it. and we are supposed to be very hospitable in the States. “As for the scenery, it’s marvellous. I was taken for a motor drive up to tho top of Mount Victoria to see the view from there. If you can show me

anything finer I should like to see it. The whole country is an ever-changing

scone. 1 tell you straight,” he added in a. tone of conviction, “that if I did not have to go back to the States I

should like to settle down here!” What do you think of the facilities for travelling? he was asked. “Splendid,” was the reply. “I have no complaints to make at all. The railways I consider most comfortable, and I like tho style of the carriages. Another thing that impressed me greatly was the civility which I met with on

all the trains and boat?. In fact, everywhere I went I was treated with the utmost courtesy. There is one thing you New Zealanders should, be absolutely proud of, and that is that ferry service between Wellington and Lyttelton. It’s marvellous! I’Ve travelled on ferry steamers all over’ the world, and on the ’crackerjack’ ser-. vices in America, but none of thAtti’ can touch this one. Why, those two boats are more like express trains. They shoot out of the wharf at full speed, go for their lives-, and when thej r get to the other end of their journey the passengers are off in ho time.” “The whole country seems to be run on the most up-to-date lines,” was his next observation. “The hotels are good, and you have all sorts of novelties and innovations that one would never expect to find. I must say, however, that the North Island seems to be brighter than the South —especially the far south.”