A CONTRETEMPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25427, 7 January 1944, Page 2

A CONTRETEMPS

PLIGHT OF NORTH ISLAND VISITORS PROBLEM OF FERRY PASSAGES Because of the heavy demand for passages on the steamer express many North Island visitors to Dunedin who did not book their reservations for the return journey how find themselves ir. an unfortunate position. The district manager of the Government Tourist Department (Mr R. G. Sincock) said yesterday that many cases had been brought under his notice of visitors, who were required to resume work on January 5 or 6, but who, through their failure to secure return steamer passages before they left home, would be unable to reach their homes before January 16 or 18. Instances had also occurred, he said, of persons who had been, directed by man-power officers to positions in the north under conditions which required them to renort by January 5 or’ 6, and for whom "it had been found impossible to obtain passages by the steamer express. “Dunedin has had more visitors from the north over the holidays than at any time since the year of the Exhibition,” Mr Sincock said. Many of them desired to visit Queenstown, but with one or two exceptions it had not been possible to find accommodation for them before January 15 or 20 at the earliest. Accommodation would be available at Wanaka and Stewart Island from January 10 onwards, he added, but at all South Island resorts the peak of the holiday season had been maintained for a longer period than for many years past.