THE TOURIST DEPARTMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10301, 4 November 1911, Page 6

THE TOURIST DEPARTMENT.

WHAT IT IS DOING REMARKS BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. EFFICIENCY OF THE CHRISTCHURCH OFFICE. When Sir Joseph Ward was addretting a small private gathering in the office of the Christchurch' branch of tho Tourist Department this morning, he took advantage of the occasion to refer to the work the Department is_ doing, and to the measure of success it has achieved. He said that there were many people who did not realise what the Department did for the country. When ho suggested'that the Department .should be created, iie selected as the head of it a man who had a very wide knowledge of the country, and the Department was now regarded as a very neces. sary one to New Zealand. He was surprised, iu his travels, io find that_so many other countries had followed New Zealand's example in the establishment of State Departments of that nature. At Honolulu, he found, tho citizens had subscribed privately to establish a Tourist Department, allowing in that. way their appreciation of its usefulness. There was a great misunderstanding amongst some people in respect to tho Department's financial position. At present it was earning something over £20.000 a year.' When facilities for reaching resorts were complete, the Df. partment would be able to repay all the expenditure incurred. It hnd done good work iu contributing to the railways, hotels and boarding-houses, which employed large numbers of people. The Christchurch branch had done more in the way of helping people and issuing tickets than any other branch in the dominion. (Hear, hoar.) That was due largely to the active and zealous work done by Mr Moon, the local officer in charge. Some figures he had obtained demonstrated that. Daring the three months ended July 31 this year, the Christchurch office had issued tickets valued at £2033 L's lOd. which excelled any other branch by £I4OO. For the three months ended September 30. it took in that way £1153! excelling any other branch, unlading Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin, by over £7OO. The Department was going along admirably, but it required very close application on the part of those who wers doing tho work. He had not recently visited any of the principal tourist resorts, but he was sure that it would pay the country to offer better facilities to people, who wished to go to Hamner by means of the railway lines. Although the Government could not do anything in the matter at present, it must by-and-bye have some system of light railway to that spa, in order that people might go a!! the way bv trains. But that kind of thing could be done only by degrees. A great deal was being done by the Government by degrees: and tho concomitant, ai> far as the Government. was concerned, was.w strange idea that existed in the minds of some of the people who asked the Government to provide means to enable those things to be done. When tho money had been ' spent, they went about and poured I anathemas upon the Government for having increased the publid expenditure.

lii rears to come Xew Zealand would bear a much larger papulation than it has at present. The public services, railways, telephones, life and fire insurance offices, Public. Trust Office and so on had to provide for that. The fact also had to be taken into consideration by the Tourist Department. It was very much up to date. Xew Zealamlers who were thousands of miles away from their own country found that there was a general knowledge in respect to Xew Zealand, and that was duo large]v to the Tourist Department. (Applause.")