ATTRACTING TOURISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 12

ATTRACTING TOURISTS.

SOUTH ISLAND COMPLAINTS.

DEPARTMENT'S WORK PRAISED.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] DUNE DIN, Friday.

With reference to the South Island tourist controversy the secretary of the Otago Expansion League, Mr. W. B. Steel, said to-day: "As a league we are dissatisfied with the tourist service in the South Island, but we are certainly not dissatisfied with the officers of the Tourist Department. As far as they possibly can, they are eager and willing to plan tours for visitors to all parts of the Dominion. It is now many years since we received from the general manager, Mr. B. M. Wilson, the assurance that any officer of the department who was proved to have blocked or limited a tourist or discriminated either for or against either island would be called to account.

During the past 10 yeara I have personally investigated many such complaints as those now being made and I have never yet found any direct evidence against the Tourist Department. I have,' however, on many occasions narrowed down the complaint to statements made by irresponsible or interested parties. The fact that the steamship services, especially the Vancouver and San Francisco vessels, touch only at the North Island gives that portion of the Dominion an enormous pull and visitors with limited time at their disposal can only visit the places of interest in the North Island. If the is in earnest in its declaration that it desires to foster the tourist traffic in the South Island, it can prove that sincerity by arranging for a subsidised passenger service by modern steamers from Melbourne to the South Island."