A TOURIST ROUND-ROBIN. The Voice of Grievance in the Land.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 400, 29 February 1908, Page 6

A TOURIST ROUND-ROBIN. The Voice of Grievance in the Land.

IT happened a few weeks ago that a British military officer visited New Zealand. It also happened that while in New Zealand he became thirsty. A further disaster befell hum. From some reason or other, not explained so far, he could not get either ale, whisky, wine, liqueur, or small beer to quench his thirst So he left the Dominion forthwith. And after he had gone, and having reached a safe distance from New Zealand, and Sir Joseph Ward, and Mr. T. E. Donne, this military officer lifted up his voice, and declaimed against God's Own Country. In the silliest fashion possible he said that our arrangements for tourists were silly. * • • Now, we didn't pay much heed to that military officer, because he argued ohildishly, and in, some instances incorrectly, without cause or reason. Buit eight tourists have drawn up a sort of "round robin" at Wanganui quite recently, and entered a protest aganst the conditions under which tourists haye to get about the country in the North. In a great measure it is the same old story of thiirst To adapt Pope, "thirst springs eternal in the human breast; man never is, but always to be blest." • • • However, to examine into the grounds of the tourists' complaint is to be persuaded that they are not entirely without argument. Every traveller does not take kindly to tea, and we in Wellington at any rate know what milk very often, consists of. Again, after a heavy and fatiguing journey by rail, coach, or river boat, there is very little stimulation in the average ginger ale or lemonade. These eight tourists had much to say in. pTaise of the scenery, and of the general efficiency of the Tourist Department, but they protested against the restrictions upon what they considered the necessaries of a traveller's life. • • • And there is much to justify these persistent complaints. The Government yearly increases their vote for the encouragement of the tourist traffic. New "resorts" are constantly being established, and fresh tracks are being cut in all directions to enable tourists to view the beauties of the Dominion But the laws relating to the sale of liquor are sueh — in tbe North at any rate — as to detract somewhat from the attractiveness of travel. Sunday is a day upon which the traveller is forbidden to be reived with alooholic beverages, ten o'clock licenses limit the opportunities for procuring a "night-cap," and practically the whole of the native territory is a prohibited area • • • It is all very well to spend £30,000 on the erection of baths at Rotorua, but the prevailing conditions related above tend to keep tourists out of the country. The travellers of the "round robin" declared that "after a hot and dustry drive all day, or ride in a dusty train, we many times arrived at our hotel, and found absolutely nothing we dared to drink. This aort of thing must be very detrimental to the country in the future unless it is altered." There is a kind of

Masonic brotherhood, amongst globetrotters and tourists, and they will not hesitate to warn each other to avoid our Dominion m spite of its scenic wooid-ers if conditions of travel are rendered objectionable.