Tourist Department Pilloried

Northern Advocate, 21 February 1939, Page 6

Tourist Department Pilloried

[Per Press Association. Copyright.! WELLINGTON, This Day. Mr A. Blackwell, a Geelong city councillor, before he left Wellington last night by the Awatea on his way back to Australia, was extremely critical of the Government Tourist Bureau. He and his companion arrived at Auckland last week, and spent six days touring the North Island, visiting Tauranga, Rotorua and Hawkes Bay. “Our tour was arranged by the Government Tourist Bureau,” Mr Blackwell said. Arrangements Miscarry “I supose you would call it arranged. About 80 per cent, of the arrangements went wrong. When they gave us this” fhe exhibited an embossed leather ticket and denary wallet) “in Melbourne, we expected from the appearance of it that there must be something pretty good behind it, but we were disappointed.” Mr Blackwell said that in the first place the itinerary started six hours before the boat arrived in Auckland. When the two travellers arrived in Auckland they found they were supposed to have- left for Tauranga at 9 o’clock that morning. They had to put off their departure until next day. When they reached Tauranga they were not expected there, and found that their reservations had been cancelled. Next the service car by which they were booked to travel, omitted to call, and the tourist authorities at Tauranga were not prepared to do anything about it. Finally they were obliged to hire a taxi to get to Rotorua. They were quite surprised to find they were expected the^s, Everything went smoothly until they reached Napier, where they were, put in a fourth-class hotel.

At Wellington they received the best treatment of the entire trip. They were expected at the hotel and made comfortable, but when they went to present their receipts for their return tickets at the Tourist Bureau they found that the Auckland district manager had inadvertently addressed the slip to himself. Mr Blackwell said they had. in spite of all this, greatly enjoyed the tour and had been deeply impressed by what they had seen.