WHITE STAR TOURIST SERVICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20832, 26 September 1929, Page 6

WHITE STAR TOURIST SERVICES.

FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. The fourth annual general meeting pf the White Star Tourist Services, Ltd., was held in the Commercial Travellers’ Club rooms, Dunedin, yesterday, Mr W. Mockett (president) occupied the chair, and there was an attendance of about 25 shareholders. THE MAYOR’S ADDRESS. The chairman said that Mr R. S. Black (Mayor of Dunedin) had kindly consented to address the meeting before the annual business was entered upon. For the information of the Mayor he said that the organisation was a private company, operating in the transport business throughout New Zealand —from Auckland to the Bluff. The company did not run a profit-sharing business. It was instituted for the benefit of its members, and it took a very active and a very important part in the transport of the country at the present time. This was the fourth annual conference, and at its previous conferences the company had been favoured with the presence of the Mayor of the city in which it had met to open its proceedings. The who was welcomed with applause, remarked that the company’s badge was an excellent one. Ho did not know whether the designer of it had vision or not, but when he selected the white star he made a good choice, because it was the ambition of all progressive men and organisations to hitch their wagon to a star. He- welcomed the members of the company to Dunedin, and expressed the view that meetings of the kind were in the interests not omy of the parties concerned but of the cities in which the meetings were held. The company was competing with the railway to some extent, but that was owing partly to the fact that the railway had failed to do its work, and-so allowed competitors to come in. He was sure the man in the backblocks must appreciate being brought into contact with the centres by the speedy transport of the motor. The railways, however, had the consoling thought -hat the motors could not take the heavy traffic, and that the time of the motors would be short, for the reason that, in these days of progress, it would be a ' nutter of only a few years before the motor car was in the same position as the hansom cab. The art of flying was making headway quickly, and man was vso impatient that he would soon pass over •it and I°°k for something quicker, iie believed the time was coming when, a person would be able to leave the Bluff at rtVii- , Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington, and land at Auckland for breakfast. He did not think, however, that the company need be down-hearted, -though in war time there were aeroplanes with bombs and gases, the army could not do without the foot soldier, and the motor 1£ ays > ve a P lace in transport' n? “ the ee? eral strike took place in Lngland_ some time ago it was the motor service that saved the situation. if “Mention to the attractions Ai, l ? l So , utherD d,s , tncts of the Dominion, Mr Black urged that the motor drivers company’s service should be changed frnm d fhn & in *° allow, ' a 8 a man 11 to see the ‘beauties f ~6 outlb so that when the c , ame - w °uld be able to Srnfn fk 1 onl J the north but of the ta “® acting as an advertiseer of the scenic and other wonders of the whole in 4nd ia 111I 11 tourists m the north would be induced to come to *k n{i tenets in the south would wuk & their ml ? ds t 0 Ko to the north, vvjth the new steamer service to the , utli from Australia, he looked forward to the day when visitors would be landed m the south and travel right througn to the north, while tourists in the north, alter spending Some time there, would journey south and leave New Zealand from its southern shores. It was in that .respect that the Government Tourist DeI® 1 i^ rt P r ? Bent: « was sin unfortunate kink the department possessed, and the Expansion League and other bodies were now doing their best to straighten it out. Mr Block also impressed on the employees’of the company V° , b ® myal to the company. Let 'them that, the service was their service, andi being loyal, not only to the cotnpanv but to each other, they would find wonderful results following their efforts to spread a knowledge of the attractions of this land of beauty, of promise, and of nope.— (Applause.) The chairman, in thanking the Mayor for his presence, expressed pleasure at his advice respecting loyalty to the organisation on the part of the employees. He believed that some of the members had not been jn Dunedin prior to this visit, and he was sure they were all looking forward to seeing some of the attractions of the south. ' MR B. M. WILSON S DEATH. The chairman referred to the loss the tourist Department, the White Star services, and the country generally Jiad suffered through the death of Mr B. M. Wilson, manager of the New Zealand Tourist Department. The company, had been in existence for a- few years, and he bad no doubt that its members had been at one time on another in Mr Wilson’s office in Wellington on business. Personally. lre_ had often been a member of a deputation to Mr Wilson, and he had always been treated courteously and given every assistance that it was in the power of the department to give. Mr Wilson’s death came as a shock to most of them, and.they all felt that thereby a distinct loss had been incurred not only by the department but by tourists generally. On the motion of the chairman the meeting \expressed sincere sympathy with Mrs Wilson and family, members standing in silence, and the meeting also expressed its sense of the loss the Tourist Department would suffer through Mr Wilson’s demise. GENERAL BUSINESS. Appreciation was expressed of ’ the' action of the Government in grappling with'the problems affecting motor transport in the Dominion. The meeting approved of the setting up by tire Government of a Ministry of Transport and particularly -of tlie proposals embodied in the Transport Amendment Bill, the chief of which—the licensing of all transport motor services—was regarded as the only satisfactory solution of existing difficulties. Mr L. C. Ryan, of Rotorua, was elected president. It was resolved to hold the next annua! meeting at Wairakei. y ANNUAL DINNER, At the Grand Hotel last night tiro members of the company held their annual imner, the president (Mr L. C, Ryan) occupying the chair. After the loyal toast had been honoured, Mr W. Steel (Otago Expansion League) proposed "Motor Transport” (reply by Mr H. M. Mackey, Ddnediu), and the president proposed ‘The Government” (reply by Mr G. W- Errington, Dunedin). Air H. Henderson proposed “ White Star Tourist Services" aud Mr R. L. Wigley, in reply, said the company was out to give the public a good service. Many people did not realise what New Zealand possessed in the way of scenic attractions. They knew what they saw to-day or to-morrow, but they did not go further afield to see the many beauties of their own land. He spoke of the bush, lake, and other scenery to be found in t w%!?l nioa \ a ? d £ f t!le P rolific revenue that the tourist traffic meant to the people of ( New Zealand as a whole. ' Department ” was proposed by Mr A. Cleave (Auckland), who gave a large meosure of credit to the publicity branch for the information it was spreading far and wide in the interests of the railways. Mr A. D. Rodie (head of the commer, cial branch of the railways), in replv, th ® Railways Department aiid the '' lute Star Company had much in common: They both strove for efficiency, reliability, the maintenance of time tables, and a determination to get through, irrespective of weather conditions or other circumstances of an adverse nature. He “ud beard the statement made that, in the face of motor transport, the day of the railway was over. He did not hold that view at all. The amount sunk in motor vehicles in New Zealand was slightly greater than the amount sunk in railways, despite the fact that motors earned only one-fifth of the traffic of the country. Then, last year the railways earned about nine million tons of traffic R t uR average cost of 2.44 d per ton mile, and he did not think the lorries could come down to that low rate yet. Further, the railways carried hundreds of thousands of workers at ike rate of 2Jd for 10-mile trips, and he did not think th« motor buses could do that yet. He contended that the railway had done as much os any other organisation to induce tour-

ists to come here from overseas, the tourist traffic benefited every branch of •the community. Other toasts were honoured, and during the evening the speeches were interspersed with musical items provided by Messrs S G. Angell, A. Swan, J. Paterson, and < Parnell,

To-day the, delegates will be taken by motor around Dunedin, and to-morrow the majority of tbem will leave for the north.