SOUTH ISLAND ATTRACTIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 8

SOUTH ISLAND ATTRACTIONS

TOURIST DEPARTMENT • CRITICISED (By. Telegraph-Special to "The Mail") OHRISTCHURCII, This Day. Tho Waitomb Caves, with Um>r myriads of klow wormy, are one of the sights of a lifetime, according to Mr J. A'. Flesher, who recently paid his first visit to them. He was astonished to aeo from the visitors' book how few South Islanders seemed to have visited them. Fully 90 per cent, were North Islanders and oversea tourists. While at Waitomo Mr Flesher told an interviewer last night: "I met an American tourist who told me. his itinerary had been made Out in Auckland, and the only points of interest in tho South Island that were mentioned were Christchurch and Mount Cook. I told him of the attractions of Otago and the Wfst Coast. This man was a mountaineer, but had been told nothing about the Franz Josef Glacier and other attractions. This is not the first instance of lack of information concerning the South Island given by the Tourist Department in the north. It seems an illustration of the desirableness of the officers in charge of the tourist bureaux being shifted around more frequently."