RACING AND BEER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26776, 20 May 1948, Page 9

RACING AND BEER

MAIN AUSTRALIAN INTERESTS

RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION BLAMED

Daily Times Special Service

AUCKLAND, May 19. “There is a general attitude of indifference in Australia, and the people seem to be interested in nothing more than horse racing and beer,” said Dr C. W. Hinkley, of Portland, Oregon, when he arrived at Auckland by air after spending two months in the Commonwealth. He blamed the Labour Government’s restrictive Legislation for the lack of enterprise that he noticed in Australia. Dr Hinkley, who' is a sociologist as well as a doctor of medicine, travelled extensively in Australia on a lecture tour. He described the facilities for visitors as “terrible.” He said that hotel accommodation was poor, and he found only one hotel which provided a laundry service. At other places he was told he would have to wash his own clothes and take them to a tailor to be ironed. He wanted to buy some clothes, but after having to make three visits to a Government department in an effort to get coupons he gave up the idea. Government restrictions hampered business and people had become indifferent in their work, said Dr Hinkley. It was no country for ambitious people. Many American servicemen who had gone there to settle after the war had gone home disheartened after a few months.