HELPING THE STRANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1921, Page 3

HELPING THE STRANGER.

American “hands the palm” ' TO NEW ZEALAND. AN ENTHUSIASTIC TRAVELLER. Americans come and go, here, but it is rot often that we hear from them now we compare with Australia. America lias an eye open for tra/le and general relations with Australia and New Zealand. The ambitions of most Americans we meet have been jtpset—and. ours, too, possibly—by the difficulty of the exchange, but they still continue trying. Two of them ' talked with a representative of the N.Z. Times One was Mr. D. D. Wilder, overseas travelling representative of the Summer Ironworks, Washington (8.C.), who Jias recently established a modern sawmilling plant at Port. Graig (Invercargill The other was .James N. Mackin, of the ® aw an< i Tools Co., Indianapolis Mr. Mackin was the first to respond to an inquiry as to how thdy had been treated in New Zealand and Australia. “I want to tell you,” he said, “that I have travelled through Australia and New Zealand. I'm half a New Zealander by now, because I hav-e been liere six months. You fellows treat »us right well here, compared with Australia, and I’ll talk to you about if.” The pressman suggested that New Zealand had possibly treated the visitor better, in the matter of orders. HOTELS AND SERVICES. “It does not cut any ice,” replied Mr. Mackin. “I’m talking facts. Over in Australia, I stay at the best hotel, and shillings, ft dajr for'

my room, and get my meals out. When. I leave, my mail and my telegrams are never forwarded on. When 1 get back, 1 find a. bunch of letters lying in the rack, a free invitation to any competitor to know that I am on the job. Here, in New Zealand, when I leave, the hotel, my letters are kept apart, and posted the day they arrive to where I am locating, and I get them next day in Christchurch, or wherever 1 am. ‘‘Your Civil Service, your Post Office, and your Telegraph Office can’t do enough for a fellow that is on the road. And your banks, too. Why, this morning 1 went into the bank, and they fixed up a letter of credit, a matter that would have taken no end of trouble in Australia. I have travelled from Thursday Island to Perth, about 4000 miles, and I hand you the palm in New Zealand for looking after tlie travellers’ interests.”