STRANDED VISITORS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 8 January 1944, Page 5

STRANDED VISITORS

NORTH BOUND TRAFFIC TAXED Dunedin, Jan. 6. Because of the heavy demand for passages on the steamer express, many North Island visitors to Dunedin who did not book reservations for the return journey now find themselves faced with an unfortunate position. The district manager of the Government Tourist Department, Mr R. G. Sincock, said to-day that many cases had been brought under his notice of visitors who were required to resume work on sth or 6th January, but who, through their failure to secure return steamer passages before they left home, would be unable to reach their homes before 16th or 18th January- Instances had also occurred, he said, of persons who had been directed by manpower officers to positions in the north under conditions which required them to report by sth or 6th January and for whom it had been found impossible to obtain passages by the steamer express. "Dunedin has had more visitors from the north over the holidays than at any time since the year of the exhibition,” Mr Sincock said. Many of them desired to visit Queenstown, but \yith one or two exceptions it had not been possible to find accommodation for them before 15th or 20th January at the earliest. Accommodation would be available at Wanaka and Stewart Island from 10th January onward, but at all South Island resorts the peak of the holiday season had been maintained for a longer period than for many years past.—P.A.