TOURIST RESORTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3775, 20 July 1926, Page 36

TOURIST RESORTS.

DEPARTMENT’S ANNUAL • REPORT. WELLINGTON July 13. The financial position of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, which has bfeen steadily improving of late, was distinctly good last year. The annual report presented to Parliament to-day shows that the net cost to the Consolidated Fund was £15,403, compared with £19,121 in 19242s. and £42,822 in 1920-21. Last years revenue was £55,391 an increase of £BI2B, and the expenditure was £70,794, an increase of £4500. But for the unprecedented damage to the Milford Track by storms, which brought the expenditure upon it from £3548 to £6091 for the season the position would have been even better. During the year 40,160 tours were booked through the department at a cost of £154,879, an increase of £68.722. The number of tourists who visited New Zealand in the year was 9195, an increase of 2830. The respective surpluses or deficiencies in respect of the principal resorts is shown in the following table: SURPLUS. 1925-26. 1924-25. Rotorua Acclimatisation District £912 £1,169 Waitoino Caves 4,653 2,975 Morcre Hot Springs 175 *l6 Te Aroha ... ... 1,563 2,071 Rotorua ... 4,816 6,884 Lake House Waikaremoana ... 79 195 Qaeenstowu 610 465 Glide House and Milford Track 1.840 915 Passenger Booking Bureau ... 726 1,940 • Deficiency. “It is, of course, impossible to estimate the indirect value of the tourist traffic in New Zealand*” says the general 'Vuiager. Mr B. M. Wilson. “For instance, Jam the visit of the Americans on the Carinthia which touched only at Auckland and Wellington on a three days' visit to New Zealand, the Tourist Department took id acUfal cash from the promoters of the tour the sum of £llOO, made up of rail, motor, and accommodation charges. There is naturally no record of 1 what members of tlie party spent outside this amount. I understand from Messrs Raymond and Whitcomb, of New York, who organised the tour and chartered the steamer, that it is proposed to return this year, and, if possible, to extend the time in New Zealand to permit of a visit to the South Island, particularly no Milford Sound. In this connection I should like to refer to an impression—to my mind quite an erroneous one —which seems to prevail in part of the South Island, that the agents of the department in the north concentrate their energies on sending visitors to spend their time in the thermal regions instead of including the South Island in their itineraries. As a matter of fact, 65 to 70 per cent, of the department’s booking business is with South Island firms. Last year the booking with the five leading firms in the South Island amounted to f 15,978, and with the five leading North Island firms the total was £9429. ** The main improvements effected at the department’s resorts during the year were the completion of extensions to Lake House, Waikaremoana, the lighting of the Waitomo Caves by electricity, and the practical completion of the excavations for a new building there, the completion of the additions to the hotel at Lake Te Anau, and also to Glade House, at' the head of the same lake.” SIR JOSEPH WARD’S VIEWS. WELLINGTON, July 13. Sneaking on tourist resorts in the House of -'‘Representatives to-day, Sir Joseph Ward said that when he had instituted ‘he Tourist Department he had been, looked upon as next door to mad. He asked the Minister to treble his courage and ask tor £50,000 annually to establish, among other things, a steamer service rom Melbourne to Bluff, Milford Sound, Stewart Island, and other spots of beauty in the south, spots which not one man in 20,000 haa seen. A man could take six months of leisure ana go through the whole world seeing its beauty spots, and yet nowhere would he find anything so beautiful as those places which lay so close at hand in hia own country. Fifty thousand pounds was a mere rothing to the benefit which could be deri”ed for New Zealand through an ambitious scheme. If a steamer 1 Ke the Franconia, which was now bringing people to this part of the world, could, be commissioned and filled with people visiting these places it would be the greatest advertisement the Dominion could get. Sir Joseph advocated systematic and extensive bottling of the curatjve waters from the various mineral springs. Among all these advantages, he said, there was only one disadvantage under wheih the Dominion suffered—it weft placed at the southernmost corner of the Pacific, and people were just beginning to find it out. However, it was gradually getting over these things. He personally had advocated against great opposition to the establishment of a steamer service from Vancouver to New Zealand, but the expenditure of £15,000 per annum was considered a terrible sum. If it had been sanctioned at that time there would have commenced a great flood of people to this country. Sir Joseph asked the House not to take the returns of revenue of Rotorua as an indication as the amount of good it was doing, for he attributed the money spent in other parts of the country as indirectly attributabo to the attraction by Rotorua of the people who' did the spending. *1 do not ask money for anything that is not necessary,” said Sir Joseph. “For instance ,1 would not agree to voting money for public buildings which could be put off as they were put off during the war, except to employ those men who are in need of work. I might be quite wrong, 1 hope I am. but I will oppose large expenditures cn buildings that can be put off for a year or two in vew of the signs of the uncertainty of the position in which we are going to be. None oan shut their eyes to it. We only have to realise that over our tourist areas, farming areas and large land holdings, there is some deterioration. Everyone knows that today it requires 55 fleeoes to fill a bale of wool whereas five years ago 45 fleeces were sufficient. 4 have the opinions of men In authority and qualified to judge, and

who make this statement advisedly. They are looking out to find the cause. It is a cause that no Government can provide for in the ordinary way.

The following appeared in our Second jMition last week:—