VISITING LINERS BRING HUNDREDS OF TOURISTS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 708, 8 March 1933, Page 6

VISITING LINERS BRING HUNDREDS OF TOURISTS.

The Idiosyncrasies of the Wealthy Americans and the British Peers.

(Special to the “Star.”) SYDNEY, March 3

During the past two or three weeks the Australian tourist season reached its culminating point with the arrival of three great oversea boats crowded with eager sightseers. First came the Lurline —the third ship of the Matson line to call here—with 200 tourists, representing ten or twenty States in the U.S.A. 'There were journalists, lawyers, scientists, manufacturers, merchants, doctors, real estate agents—l beg their pardon, “realtors”. — bankers and soldiers; and almost all of them were seeing Australia for the first time.

TyjISS BARBARA HUTTON, the richest girl in the world ” —nineteen-year-old heiress of the Woolworth ten millions—was perhaps the most noteworthy figure; but Mr Thanhouser, the first moving picture producer in America, -who could have had Mary Pickford for one of his first movies at 65 dollars a week but refused to spend the money, seemed to me even more interesting. The Lurline was here only three days but the tourists spent them to good purpose, wandering all round the city and the harbour, calling at Government House, and visiting the Blue Mountains and the Genolan caves and, by their own account, they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. There were a few exceptions, and Miss Hutton, who admitted wearily that she had not counted the number of cars that she possesses, and was chiefly concerned about her chances of picking up jade in China, was rather preoccupied; but on the whole they did full justice to Sydney, spending plenty of money, and singing our praises loudly on their departure. Wealthy Names. After the Lurline, the Carinthia, with nearly 300 passengers on a four months’ cruise from New York, “ round the world and back again.” Here, too, the almost fabulous -wealth of the United States was adequately represented, for among 44 those present ” I find the names of Mrs Wool* worth, aunt of Miss Hutton, who went on the week before in the Lurline, Mrs Amory, formerly Mrs Alfred Vanderbilt, Miss Gloria Baker and her half-brother, young Mr Aly Vanderbilt, Mr Stuart Aldrich, who is brother-in-law of Mr J. D. Rockefeller, jun., and Mr Elwood Ford, the cousin of “ our one and only Henry.” I wonder how much money this little party really stands for. No doubt this is vulgar "curiosity, but I am trying to talk in terms appropriate to the occasion, and I have just been reading an interview with one of the passengers, Mr E. Seiffert, “ a director of nine plumbing concerns in New York,” who assured our reporter that “ along Fifth Avenue there are at least fifty houses with gold bathroom and toilet appointments.” A Colourful Personality. This rigid opulence must be very fatiguing to those who cannot escape from it, and that was the impression produced by

the remarks of Mrs Charles Amory who, “ constantly smoking, her long white cigar-ette-holder held in a hand red-tinted at the finger nail,” was adjudged “ the most colourful personality on the Carinthia.” But Mrs Amory was simply delighted w’ith everything that she saw—the city, the surroundings, the shops and the girls—“ quite too fascinating,” she said. “ I saw more pretty women walking down your streets in one day than I have ever seen before.” Most of her fellow passengers seem to share Mrs Amorv’s view’s, but, as they had only two days here, they had not much time to give us any substantial and material proof of their appreciation. Page from the Peerage.

And after the Americans, the “ Britishers ” on the Otranto. This boat’s tourists were of a different type from those of the Lurline and Carinthia —in fact, part of the Otranto’s passenger list read something like a page accidentally copied out of “ Burke’s Peerage.” There was Sir August Cayzer, of the Clan and Shire lines, wandering round to inspect his company’s agencies. Lord Latymer on his way to New Zealand for “ the fishing,” the Earl and Countess of Montpenny, who live on Salisbury Plain w’hen they are at home and housed many an Australian Digger during the war, Colonel the Hon George Herbert Lukeman, Usher to the King, Sir Bampfylde Fuller, of the Indian Service, the Marquis of Hertford—and minor lights too numerous to mention. They were here only for a few’ hours but they all declared that they were most favourably impressed and nearly all expressed a desire to come again and “ see the country properly.” No doubt these British voyagers felt as even the best-intentioned Americans could not feel, that when they got to Australia thev w T ere among kinsfolk again. There is in Sydney just now an Englishman, for a quarter of a century borough councillor in a Lancashire town, who has just been describing for an interviewer the admiration that he feels for Sydney and his delight in remembering that he is related by birth to this Commonwealth. It is good to attract American tourists, who will help to advertise us to the outer world, but it is even better that our tourist traffic should help to strengthen the ties of blood-relationship and the “ silken bonds of Empire.