AN ACTOR'S APPRECIATION

Southland Times, Issue 17267, 11 February 1913, Page 5

AN ACTOR'S APPRECIATION

LIKES NEW ZEALAND. (Special to the Times.) CHRISTCHURCH. February 10. On his way through Christchurch, Mr Fred Nil)to. the star artist of the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford" Co., gave a reporter some of iiis impressions of New Zealand. "My opinion of New Zea’and!" said Mr Niblo. "Well, I suppose my'opinion of New Zealand is not wortli a continental rap to Now Zealanders, but it is worth a great deal to me. It is a great country, a glorious country, a country with a future, a country all of us have admired very much. That might look like putting on the honey and the sugar, hut take my word for it, it is our deep and sincere opinion all the same. But your hotels; I cannot wish to criticise the cuisine arrangements or the accommodation. The food was of the best, and (here was every comfort, hut of nine of your leading hotels that I stayed in onlv one had ilie electric light in the bedrooms, and that was in Wellington, Of the remainder one had gas, .and the ether seven supplied us with candles only. And you call Hint modern progress in a progressive country in the Twentieth century; I have travelled till over the world; 1 Imve stayed at hotels in the Pyrenees of Spain; I have lodged in the steppes of Russia; and in none of them have I had to descend to using a candle to go to bod with. All had the electric light- I am a great reader, and when the show is over of an evening I generally spend an hour or two in bed reading. 1 commenced to read a book when I arrived in New Zealand, but I have so far only completed two chapters of it. How can one read by the aid of candle light? Why, one cannot see to undress by it! What about the accommodation in nolicense districts? "All!” was all that Mr Niblo uttered, but* the tone and the shrug conveyed volumes.