SOUTH ISLAND RESORTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23321, 13 October 1937, Page 6

SOUTH ISLAND RESORTS

ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION QUESTIONS IN THE HOUSE AN . INVESTIGATION PROMISED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Oct. 12. Reference to' alleged discrimination against South Island resorts by officers of the Government Tourist Department was made by two members—Dr D. G. M'Millan (Govt., Dunedin West) and Mr T. H. M'Combs (Govt., Lyttelton)—in the House of Representatives to-day. Dr M'Millan, in an urgent question addressed to the Minister in Charge of the Tourist Department (Mr F. Langstone), asked whether . the Minister had seen the statement made to the Christchurch Press by an overseas visitor that she and others had been discouraged from * visiting the South Island. He asked whether the Minister would make inquiries and have the offending officers replaced by others who were competent to advise visitors on the scenic attractions of New Zealand. Mr ■' M'Combs’s question, which was on similar lines, raised a laugh from North Island members by a reference to “ the superior attractions of the South Island tourist resorts." . Replying in the absence of Mr Langstone, the Prime Minister (Mr M. J. Savage) stated that, while he could not go into details, he could • say that the Government was there to administer the affairs of New Zealand generally—not just the North Island or the South Island, but New Zealand as a whole. The tourist resorts of the South Island would receive the same attention as those in the North Island. So far as he knew they were being given the same attention now, but the question would be referred to the Minister in charge of the department. , “It is my : experience,” Mr Savage added, " that officers of the public service generally are competent, but if we find that that is not so in this case action can be taken. The Minister in Charge of the Tourist Department will look into the matter anyway."

DENIAL OF STATEMENTS

THE DEPARTMENT DEFENDED

(Special to Daily Times) . WELLINGTON, Oct. 12. Details of the Wellington Tourist Bureau’s dealings with Mrs Seydell were given to-day by Mr R. W. Marshall, who is in charge of the bureau. He said that a positive denial could ,be given to the suggestion that any bias had been shown ftgainst the South Island. Mr Marshall said his office had been advised by the Auckland Bureau that Mrs Seydell was travelling to Wellington and that she and her party were interested in the South Island. On their arrival in Wellington an officer of the bureau was sent to their hotel to interview them. They did not call at the bureau or send for an officer. The interview was sought by the bureau in consequence of advice received from Auckland. Mr Marshall said that the officer who interviewed Mrs Seydell was a South Islander, very fully conversant with the south, its resorts and attractions, and its general travel facilities. He had spent three years at the glaciers 'in which Mrs Seydell’s party wwas especially interested. The officer spent two hours at the hotel discussing a proposed itinerary, which was eventually agreed upon. The reservations were ready for the party, and the tickets had actually been issued, but in the afternoon a member of the party telephoned to the bureau and cancelled the reservations of the itinerary. It was learned that subsequent to the interview the party had booked for the South Island through a private agency.

A strong reluctance on the part of the Wellington office of the Government Tourist Department to arrange for tourists to visit the South Island was alleged by Mrs Mildred Seydell, an American journalist and lecturer, who, accompanied by her husband, is at present touring the Dominion, in an interview with a representative of the Christchurch Press. Mrs Seydell stated that five American tourists .who wanted to visit the South Island decided not to do so on the advice of one of the Wellington tourist officers.. She and her husband were determined to come south from Wellington, but because of the' attitude adopted by the Tourist Department, she said, they went to Messrs Thomas. Cook and Sons, who arranged a South Island itinerary for them without any trouble. “ Why doesn’t the Tourist Department like the South Island?” said

Mrs Seydell. “When husband and I said we wanted to do the i South Island by private car we were told by a Wellington tourist officer that that was practically impossible. He said we would freeze to death in the South Island at this time of the year, and that if we travelled by private car we would probably be unable to get through because the mountain passes we would have to cross would not be negotiable. That man in Wellington practically refused to book us for the South Island, and we became so annoyed that we went to Cook’s.”