MEDICAL VISITORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 36

MEDICAL VISITORS.

OVERLAND TOUR ABANDONED TOURIST DEPARTMENT CRITICISED. VuRCARGILL, February 1. Considerable dissatisfaction was expressed by many of the passengers on board the Moeraki, which arrived at Bluff this morning from Melbourne, in respect to the arrangements, or lack of arrangements, made by the Government Tourist Department authorities at Milford Sound on the Mel-bourne-Bluff trip. The Union Company’s passenger vessels call at Milford Sound ‘ in the summer months in order to give the passengers an opportunity of viewing at close quarters the beauty of the fiord country The vessel was carrying some 60 members of the medical profession from all parts of Australia who are visiting the Dominion for the purpose of attending the Medical Congress which is to be opened in Dunedin on Thursday. Forty of the party were to have landed at Milford and travelled overland to Te Anau. thence to Dunedin, but bungling on somebody’s part brought about a forced cancellation of the arrangements. The Moeraki arrived at Milford Sound at 5.52 on Sunday morning, and the party of doctors prepared to disembark. They were naturally surprised and annoyed when the Government boat did not come out to take them off. The vessel was in the Sound until 1 p.m., and during those three hours the siren was sounded continuously and rockets and detonators were set off. No official boat came, although the noise of the signals must have been heard for many miles. During the course of the morning * small boat was brought up to the Moeraki »y Captain Hamilton, and four of the passengers were taken off. Of these -four only one was a medical man. The other three were his daughter and & honeymoon

couple, who resolved to make the trip. The other . doctors, with their equipment and material all ready for the eagerly-awaited trip, were forced to stand by helplessly while the four fortunate persons disembarked. When the vessel berthed at Bluff this morning several of the _ doctors expressed most pointedly their opinion of the Government tourist facilities in New Zealand. All who were questioned were frankly chagrined at the lack of means to land at the Sound. The visitors, who came from practically all the large cities and State of Australia, hd planned the trip months ago. Preparations for the Milford walk had been completed in detail, and a comprehensive programme mapped out. As a result of th’s lack of boat $ provision the preparations of months were upset. As the visitors are all professional men their stay in New Zealand is naturally limited. Another minor point is that the visitors may be unable to secure accommodation at the hotel where they were booked at Dunedin until several days hence. As can only be expected, the visitors’ opinions of New Zealand methods of Catering for tourists were expressive to the point. One doctor stated that while he was quite aware that there might have been some official reason for the Blunder, which he had overlooked, he. considered the fault to be with the Tourist Department. The lack of telephonic and wireless com munication with Milford was also spoken of as extraordinary by many of the passengers. It should be explained that the ship’s boats were not used to convey the visitors to land, as such action by the captain with out preliminary medical examination would have rendered him liable to prosecution. When approached this afternoon in connection with this remarkable lapse, the officials of the local office of the Government Tourist Bureau were unable to give any reason as to why the boat did not put in an appearance. The matter will be thoroughly investigated, and the general manager for New Zealand (Mr B. M. Wilson) has already left for Milford to hold aa inquiry.

Mr A. E. Wilson (the local tourist manager) states that the arrangements for the trip were made by the tourist office at Melbourne and the head office at Wellington, where it <vas arranged that the track manager (Mr Cheriton) should conduct the party personally to Glade House. Evidently the launch was not there to meet the boat.. “I would like to point out,” Mr Wilson said, “that the means of communication at Milford are very poor. The boat goes up Lake Te Anau only three days in the week, and while the launch men would know the boat was due they would not know at what time to expect it. They could only make a guess, and they might have just missed it. The boat would probably not wait. Apart from this, all arrangements had been made even to an alteration in the steamer service necessitating a special trip up from Te Anau to Glade House.”