RAILWAYS AND TOURISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 54

RAILWAYS AND TOURISTS.

CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY EXPERT'S VIEWS. AUCKLAND, December 4. As a railway expert, Colonel Sclater (representative of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in Australia and New Zealand), who reached Auckland to-day after a visit to the Exhibition, aaid he was particularly struck with the new sleeping car on show at the Exhibition. It was the first of 10 designed by the chief mechanical engineer, Mr G. S. Lunde, for use in the Auckland-Wel-lington night express services. Ha was convinced that the car would hold ita own in comparison with Bimilar rolling stock in any part of the world when the limitations imposed by New Zealand’s narrow guage railway were taken into consideration. The cars were going to add a great deal to the comfort of night travelling for business men particularly, and would also earn good opinions from overseas visitors. To please them was to add, by their personal advertisement, to the flow of tourist traffic to these shores. Colonel Sclater remarked, however, that the Daylight Limited was the train for sightseers, traversing as it did a great acenic route, while at the same time giving speedy connection between the terminals. Some comment had arisen in Dunedin, eaid Colonel Sclater, over the fact that his company’s exhibit was not included in the Canadian Court. It had been separated because ths authorities of his railway company wished to show side by side with the Union Steam Ship Company, and so emphasise the importance of the All Red Routs which the two companies had jointly helped to build up during many years of concerted effort. He was glad to notice that the popularity of the route continued to increase, to such an extent that the trans-Pacific section was to-day served by two such fine vessels a« the Aorangi and the Niagara. People said the Canadian Pacific Railway was represented at the Exhibition to attract tourist traffic and revenue to its own lines, and. while that was so it could be claimed that it was also contributing not a little to the advertisement of New Zealand. It had long been one of the chief distributors in the North American continent of literature advertising New Zealand, and to-day it waa working in close touch with the Dominion’s Publicity Department. Moreover, in ths Chateau Frontenac, one of the great tourist hotels of Montreal, an exhibition in miniature wes being eetabliehed from New Zealand. The company’s representative, Mr E. R. Bruce, had been instructed to take specimens of curios and pictures illustrative of the Dominion’s attractions for inclusion in the exhibition at the hotel, and as it was a great rendezvous for tourists, New Zealand would certainly benefit by the advertisement.

“I am leaving for Sydney next week,” concluded Colonel Sclater, “and once more I feel sorry to leave your lovely country. New Zealand has always appealed to me. Everyone ecems so prosperous, there are no signs of poverty anywhere, and your’e, indeed, is a happy land. There are always new advances to be noted on a return visit. Your cities are going ahead fast, and Auckland particularly so.