IMPRESSIONS OF TRIP

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20768, 1 July 1937, Page 6

IMPRESSIONS OF TRIP

MR A. M. H. SHIRTCLIFF RETURNS VISIT TO AUSTRALIA Impressions of an, extended visit to Australia were given to a reporter of "The Timaru Herald” yesterday by Mr A. M. H. Shirtcliff who, with Mrs Shirtcliff, recently returned to Timaru. “I saw great changes in Sydney and in the spread of the city since I was there eight years ago,” said Mr Shirtcliff. Sydney was the third city in the British Empire, with a population of IS millions and was a very busy place indeed. The buildings were magnificent and there was continual replacement going on with property owners having to keep up-to-date in the competition of leasing, by the provision of still finer buildings.

Having business to do in Melbourne, Mr Shirtcliff was there eight days. Melbourne, he said, was more like a New Zealand city and the people similar in temperament to our people. Tremendous business was done there and seemingly on very sound lines. He did not see a great deal of change in the city itself, but its environments had spread tremendously in the last eight years, there being a population of close on a million and a quarter. Victoria was the smallest State in Australia, but its gross income from the land and secondary industries this year was £105,000,000. The secondary industries in Melbourne and Sydney were increasing, and of Victoria’s gross income £54,000.000 was the result of turning the raw material into the manufactured article. From Melbourne Mr Shirtcliff had the opportunity of travelling by sea, calling at Sydney, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville and up to Cairns. This was the tourist season and it was an ideal winter trip. Very fine steamers are provided for the Journey, which was 2500 miles from Melbourne, and the trip was done leisurely, giving one ample time to visit the places en route and in addition, steamers called at several islands where some hours were spent picnicking and doing the sights. The trip through the coral sea was wonderful. Its water was protected from the ocean by the Barrier Reef and was therefore quite calm and proved very enjoyable to all the passengers. There were myriads of islands which added to the picturesqueness of the trip and at no time from Brisbane to Cairns was the vessel out of sight of land. Cairns was the mecca of tourists, and during the tourist season some 400 people arrived each week to enjoy the tropical winter. Beautiful Queensland “We had the opportunity of a good deal of travelling in the State of Queensland, which is a very beautiful State indeed, and there are many fine trips to be taken to the bush lands, table-lands and so on," said Mr Shirtcliff. The table-lands were all volcanic country, very rich in red soil and capable of much development. He fully anticipated that as time goes on Queensland would become a very valuable State in production. Sugar cane growing occupied all the foreshore for the best part of 1000 miles and was a very thriving industry. On the table-lands in the north there was chiefly maize growing and dairying; in

the south on Darling Downs, wheat growing. He had the opportunity of bringing back with him samples of their primary products, which should be interesting to growers of wheat in New Zealand. Green Island, 17 miles by launch from Cairns, was a truly wonderful spot—one of the world’s wonders—said Mr Shirtcliff. It was a small island 28 acres in extent, right on the Barrier Coral Reef, and it was not known how such luxuriant vegetation came to be there. The island was practically on sea level and was really a beautiful spot, with cocoanut palms 70ft high and many varieties of bush trees growing on coral. The island was much as Captain Cook found it, and possibly he named it Green Island on account of the green verdure rising seemingly straight out of the sea. There

was opportunity there to see marine life from flat glass-bottomed boats, where the great varieties of coral could be seen in the natural state and fish of the brightest hues abounded. Mr Shirtcliff said that one could certainly recommend the trip they had just had for a winter holiday. Front Lyttelton to Lyttelton they travelled in seven steamers traversing 7750 miles by sea. One had to realise the great difference in the winter at Cairns, where one slept under a mosquito net. and a fortnight afterwards landing in New Zealand to about 19 degrees of frost. "Nevertheless we are glad to be back in our own country, which certainly does not lose in value by a visit abroad,” he added.