TOURIST RESORTS.

Southland Times, Issue 17660, 18 February 1916, Page 4

TOURIST RESORTS.

The Auckland Herald has something to say with reference to the protest entered by the Otago Expansion Teague against the undue booming of the hot lakes of the North Island as a tourist resort at the expense of the cold lakes of this district. The Auckland Herald describes the complaint as "curious,” and goes on to say that it is “the fame of the unique sights of the thermal wonderland that brings great numbers of visitors to our shores.” While admitting that the scenic beauties of the south are unquestionable, the Herald says that ‘‘so long as thermal conditions continue in the hot lakes region, and so long as the hot lakes retain their curative properties, it is hopeless for any Expansion Teague to attain any success by setting the two in competition.” Our contemporary goes on to say that the value of the Rotorua resorts is proved by the accommodation and treatment provided there for the wounded soldiers. The Herald obviously deals in a one-sided Auckland way with the question. For invalids who come to New Zealand under medical advise' to take a course of troat-siont at Rotorua there is no doubt that the hot lakes are the proper

place to go, but the point of interest is the general tourist traffic, and so

far as this traffic is concerned w© venture to say that the thermal district of the North Island is not to be compared for a single moment with the lake and fiord district of western Otago. So far as scenery is con-

cerned there is no comparison whatever. The thermal district is wonderful by reason of its abnormal character—its hot springs and geysers, its coloured lakes, its seething mut craters are all worth seeing, hut a« a scenic resort iu the real sense of the word it has no status whatever. For the most part it is dirty and dreary, and there is nothing in the North island that is at all comparable to the view across Manapourl, to Hauroto and Te Anau, to the head of Wakatipu, or to the Milford track. The tourist who wishes to see nature at its grandest must see the southern lakes and fiords, the scenery of which is not only the finest in the dominion, hut is admittedly equal to the finest' iu the world. These resorts are not well enough known and greater prominence ought to be given them by the Tourist Department. For pure pleasure, for an ideal health holiday for the average man or woman who does not suffer from rheumatism or dyspepsia, the traveller should visit our lakes region in preference to the tiresome hot lakes of the north, and despite the Auckland Herald we trust that as a result of the protest made tourists will be enlightened a little more fully as to the attractions of this beautiful southern resort