DOMINION’S DESTINY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 14 February 1927, Page 8

DOMINION’S DESTINY.

A PLAYGROUND OF WORLD. GREAT SCENIC ASSETS. Sir Janies Barrett, of Melbourne, who attended the Medical Congress in Dunedin, had some pointed comment to make on one or two matters concerning the Dominion. “I do not wish New Zealand, which is so hospitable, to think me critical, for its people are the best judge's of their own business,” he said, “but 1 should like to. make some suggestions. In New Zealand you have got a volcanic region, easily accessible, from Tongariro to White, Island. You have got some seaside resorts north of Auckland unrivalled. You have got a place like Rotorua developed for holiday traffic with golf links and other things. You have 10.000 ft of high mountains and glaciers in the South Island. You have got lakes and you have got a wonderful climate, and all. be it remembered, within a comparatively small compass .and easily accessible. “I know of no country in the world,” said Sir James, “where all these things are so combined and where with proper arrangements they could so easily be got at.” In Java, he said, if you wanted to visit a volcano it- meant a day’s trip up the mountain, a night at a hut, and a peep at the volcano before the. clouds came down. You did not get cold lakes and meadows and golf links and other attractions there. VALUE NOT APPRECIATED. “The natural destiny for New Zealand,” went on Sir James, “apart from her industrial and agricultural activities, is to become one of the chief playgrounds of the world, and the value of such an asset does not seem to he appreciated. It is very difficult to get to New Zealand, difficult to get a passage on the boats, and when you do get a. passage you are crowded three and four in a- cabin. Moreover, when vou do get to New Zealand it is a little difficult to get out of it again for the same reason. “Then there was a trouble in finding accommodation in the hotels, and vet the total number of visitors who came from Australia must he comma rati vely few.

BROADER TREATMENT NEEDED. “When I was here in 1914,” he ontitiued, “I saw the Minister of the dav and pointed out to him that in 1 lie tourist traffic, if it were developed as the Canadian Pacific Railway had developed it. New Zealand had a priceless asset. It meant, houevei. doing things in a bigger and broader wav. I am afraid that your Government. could not do such work, but it could assist it and show its sympathy. The constitution of a political body does not lend itself easily to the full development of this type of thing.” Sir James said they had an excellent agency for New Zealand in Melbourne, where information was supplied, but it could not supply the steamers or the hotels.. When you found, for example, the Canadian Pacific Railway building steamers, and hotels and even running a national sanctuary and a park for wild animals as side-shows, you began to realise what- the business might mean. “I hope.” said Sir James, “that no one reading these remarks will think that I have been inconvenienced. I have been treated with extreme civility and every attention since I landed in Auckland, hut at the same time I '•ecognise that the facilities for getting into and through New Zealand are inadequate if a large number of people are to be handled. The recent expedience of those who came over here in the Moeraki indicates the sort of thing that may occur.”