THE Thames Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1929. TOURIST TRAFFIC.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17528, 17 January 1929, Page 4

THE Thames Star

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1929. TOURIST TRAFFIC.

"With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmneae in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”—Lincoln.

This is the time of the year at which the tourists resorts of the Dominion, should be exerting to the full their call to visitors from overseas, and it is to be hoped that when the tourist season has run its course there will be evidence available that the natural attractions of New Zealand are receiving steadily increasing recognition. It has, reasonably, been a rather sore point with the South Island that many visitors to this country never come further south than Cook Strait and possibly never understand that they have missed anything of importance or interest. The time seems again opportune to emphasise the need that there should be, on the part of the Tourist Department, a thoroughly dispassionate desire to see that tourists receive the most comprehensive information concerning the beauty spots of the Dominion and a really adequate idea of their claims to attention, irrespective of their situation in the north or in the south. The Department has always repudiated the idea that its officials would discriminate between the North and th e South Islands, to the disadvantage of the 'South, when assisting tourists to plan their movements while in this country. On the other hand, the impression is frequently gained from persons whose ve::u*ity cannot be questioned that the information supplied them has not been calculated to enlighten them regard,ing the manifold attractions of the South Island or to induce them to make an effort to visit it. The fact remains that visitors who come expressly to see what New Zealand has to show too often leave its shores without having beheld the outstanding scenic features of the country. These, we think it may be claimed with justice, are in the South Island. For variety, at all events, the scenic attractions of the South Island more than hold their own with those of the North. The southern lakes, th e fiord region, and the

alpine resorts constitute assets that are capable of exploitation to the immense advantage of the country as a whole. It is unfair to tourists themselves that they should be deprived of the opportunity of viewing the attractions of the South Island, possibly because the nature of these has not been brought home to them, or because their itineraries, prepared with official assistance, have been so arranged that they have insufficient time to spare for them. Attention has been drawn to the advertising in Australia of a personally conducted tour of the North Island of New Zealand, organised !by an Australian company in conjunction with the New Zealand Government Tourist Department. The Department may have nothing whatever to do with the limitation of the tour to the North Island, but the circumstances seem to afford a fresh illustration of the manner in which the existence of the South Island appears somehow to be too often quite overlooked. There is evidently some need for persistent effort to counteract, in the interests of the South, the effect of the circumstance that tourists generally begin their itineraries in the North. This is largely due to the fact, which only aggravates the general position, that the 'South Island' suffers serious from the lack of direct intercolonial shipping communications. But an important factor will always be publicity, and the South Island deserves and needs more than the relative share of this than it has "been receiving if it is to be marked down as a. matter of course by the prospective tourist for visitation.

GROWTH OF POPULATION. Growth of population in New Zealand and Australia appears to show a very small margin of difference.. The Commonwealth Statistician recently published figures showing that in the decade ended 1927 the increase in population in th e Commonwealth was 1,152,791, or an average of 2.27 per cent, annually. For the corresponding period the increase in New Zealnad was 302,642 or an average of 2.63 per cent. On these figures New Zealand has a slight advantage, but the period taken includes the years when our soldiers wer e returning from Europe, and the statistical treatment of these, in the two countries may not be identical. As a matter of fact, taking a later peifiod, our population and that of the Commonwealth increased at practically the same rate proportionally. With the closing-down of assisted immigration a decline in the rate of increase may be expected both here and in Australia.