FINE ENDOWMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19377, 15 July 1937, Page 4

FINE ENDOWMENT

WAIKANAE FORESHORE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT GISBORNE’S ADVANTAGES EXAMPLES FROM OVERSEAS “Climatically Gisborne has a wonderful natural asset in its settled summer season. In the foreshore at Waikanae, it has the beaches of many more famous resorts beaten out of sight. From what we saw on our tour abroad, I am convinced that this town can be made tp rival any other seaside town in the Dominion for beauty and tourist appeal," stated Mr. H. R.' Heiford, a former member of the Gisborne Thirty-Thousand Club, during an . informal gathering last evening when he and StafT SergeantMajor L. R. Stichbury were welcomed home by executive members of the club.

Prior to his departure with the New Zealand Contingent to take part in the Coronation celebrations in London, Mr. Heiford undertook to note any features of seaside resort facilities which he considered might be applicable to the further development of the attractions at the Waikanae Beach. Last evening he referred to the main features of such holiday resorts as he had been able to see in the course of his absence abroad, and expressed his conviction that the expenditure of a reasonable sum of public money in developing tourist facilities in Gisborne, both on the foreshore and elsewhere in the town, would make a handsome return to the district within a measurable period.

Catering for Tourists

In a general conversation on the subject of town development, both Mr. Heiford and Sergeant-Major Stichbury agreed that Gisborne had advantages which could not be excelled in popular cities of the countries they had visited.

Conceding that the expenditure of public money could not be undertaken on the scale adopted in major English resorts, where miles of promenades and acres of gardens were featured, Mr. Heiford expressed the view that Gisborne people took too little pride in the beaches and other attractions of their town, and showed too little interest in preparing for the tourist traffic which was bound to develop in the early future, particularly when the railway connection was completed between Napier and Gisborne. This view was endorsed by others present, who spoke with a wide knowledge of the more popular resorts in the Dominion, and claimed that Caroline Bay at Timaru and the ocean beach at Napier offered far less scope for improvement than Waikanae Beach at Gisborne.

Napier-Timaru Comparison

In the discussion, much was made of the energy and foresight displayed in both Timaru and Napier in providing centres of attraction for tourists, and in trying to ensure that visitors to the town took away the best of impressions. It was the general opinion that, excellent'as the improvements at Waikanae Beach were at present, they would prove inadequate to accommodate the number of tourists to be expected during the coming summer, and in increasingly greater flow in subsequent years.

A suggestion offered by an executive member who recently visited Timaru was that Gisborne should follow the example of the South Island resort, and furnish accommodation for dancing and floodlit sports at Waikanae. At Caroline Bay, he stated, a hall accommodating about 400 people had been erected, and had proved a fine source of income as well as a wonderful asset.

Caroline Bay had become the pride of Timaru, and every tourist who passed through the town was induced to visit the beach and sample its attractions, if the season was favourable. One result was that visitors carried away impressions most flattering to the Timaruvians, and spread abroad excellent reports of the town.

Waikanae’s natural advantages, it was contended, were too easily taken for granted by Gisborne people, and the provision of accommodation there for dancing and for hard-court tennis at night, with other games, would help to take local residents as well as visitors to the beach. The fact that many scores of Gisborne people pay fleeting visits to the Waikanae Beach during the summer 'evenings, and leave again without alighting from their cars, was mentioned as evidence that the provision for entertainment should be more comprehensive.