TOURISTS.

Southland Times, Issue 20614, 12 October 1928, Page 3

TOURISTS.

To the Editor. Sir,—Your correspondent, Mr James Lilico, asks in his letter to you in Tuesday’s Times: Will any New Zealander who has been to America tell us how the Government there caters for tourists?” I may say that I was in America a few years ago and for the privilege of leaving the ship and spending a few hours ashore with Uncle Sam I paid altogether 67/-, and when I got ashore Uncle Sam was pleased to give me 13 cents for my shilling, or something like 6Ad for my 1/-. Now, Sir, let us examine what we great New Zealanders are doing for Uncle Sam. In the first place he gets free advertisements in the Southland Times. You, Mr Editor, never lose a chance of pointing a finger to Uncle Sam. You say that we must build better hotels to accommodate his commercial travellers (“the so-called tourists”), who come here to sell motor cars, and take away our gold; the farmers of this country must produce more lamb, mutton, beef and wool, butter and cheese, etc., and send it home to John Bull, and when the cash comes back put up beautiful buildings in Invercargill to sell Uncle Sam’s motor cars and petrol; in other words, a perpetual tax on the farmers who have to win every cent out of the soil. Uncle Sam takes our shillings now; he’ll give us shells by and by. Another correspondent in Tuesday’s Times interested me. In concluding his letter, “Old Hand,” said after making due allowance for the benefit of smaller classes per teacher and of greater efficiency, etc., 1 am tempted to say that “Old Hand” has better eyesight than I have, for I fail to see the efficiency. I will be glad if “Old Hand” will tell me where the efficiency is. Then I’ll tell him what efficiency was when Mr Tom Giller and I were boys together.—l am, etc., SLIM JIM.