WEST COAST TOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 7

WEST COAST TOUR

MINISTER OF INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE (Special to Daily Times) WEHEKA, Feb. 4. The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr D. G. Sullivan) is using modern means of travel in his desire to see all that is possible of the industrial potentialities of the country. To-day, while continuing his tour of the West Coast he and Mrs Sullivan with Mr J. O’Brien, the member for Westland, and Mr G. H. Mackley, general manager of railways, spent more than four hours in the air on long flights over the whole of the far south of Westland, an area rich in natural resourches but as yet practically untouched. The flight was made in two machines of Air Travel (N.Z.), Ltd.. in ideal flying conditions. The party saw magnificent scenery, which the Minister described as probably unparalleled in the world. Flying along the Southern Alps glimpses of Canterbury and Otago were obtained across the snow-capped divides. The machines then sped down the coast almost to the borders of the province. The Minister was profoundly impressed with the beauty of the scenery, the tremendous possibilities for the development of the timber and mining resources of the country, and with the need for better access either by road, rail, or sea for such a productive district.