SLIGHTLY IN ERROR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20168, 9 June 1928, Page 6

SLIGHTLY IN ERROR

1 * A CRITICS RAMBLINGS THE WANGANUI TOURIST OFFICI Under the headings Way,’’ “Lack of Departmental Coordination,” the following article appeared recently in a Rotorua newspaper, writes a correspondent to tho “Chronicle”: “The commercial agents of the New Zealand Railway Department are doing good work. Gradually, by every means within their power they are winning back traliic for the railways. They aro meeting competition of road transit and meeting it fairly and in an energetic way. “But departmental co-ordination sadly lacking. A most startling exI ample of this exists in Wanganui. The Government Tourist Agency stands in the heart of the city; it occupies & fine corner site directly opposite the post oitice. Here thousands of people assemble daily, as it is the starting point for tram and other services. “Near at hand an enterprising motor service has established an office. near, indeed, that the unwary easily think the motor service poop’® are one and the same as the tourist agency. “Both premises have plate g] aBl fronts. The motor service in bold lettering displays time-tables and other information. The tourist agency obliterates all its plate glass frontage with paint. The windows are frosted. One marvels that so much valuable frontage on so valuable a corner is wasted—wnat an opportunity for attractive displays to advertise the pleasure and holiday resorts of this country. But that is the affair of the Tourist Department. “The paradoxical thing is the system of obscuring the windows. They are neatly frosted over. On top is announced the fact that the Government Tourist Agency is housed within. Then a neat scroll with centre panel gives some ( design' to the painted effect. But in the centre panel some information i s given to the public. And here is what the tourist agency announces ‘Motor tours booked to all parts of tho Dominion. ’

“Which raises two pertinent questions. What is wrong with the New Zealand Railways? And why should the same Government employ commercial agents to talk against the very motor service the tourist agency advocates? Will somebody please explain!” Complaints Ridiculed. Commenting on this extract, the correspondent says:— “Were the writer of this article to have come for a holiday from Masterton, Oamaru or Invercargill, the problem of the “frosted’’ windows could be solved. But they have hotels in Rotorua. “It is admitted that tho window! have been covered up but that wai away back in January last year, when the office was being fitted up for occupation. Since thou there has not been a day when there was nothing of interest in the windows. This critic wants to wake up. “As for the booking of motor tours, I always understood that the Tourist Department’s job was to encourage travel in New Zealand generally. If travellers were kept to the railway system, they would not see a great deal of the beauties of the country, I am afraid. I have booked tours through the Department’s branches on several occasions, and can assure the Rotorua scribe that the officers push the advantages of rail transport just as far as is advisable. Tho motor services cover ground that tho railways do not serve, and the Tourist Department's booking system seems a very logical and very satisfactory way of linking them up to mutual advantage. * I have been living in Wanganui fot over a year and pass the local office daily. In the windows there is always a great deal to attract notice, and”! cannot remember having seen a window display in which reference was noi made to the railways.

“It seems that no point is too small to use in criticism of the Government and its services, and perhaps criticism is sometimes merited, but from personal experience I can say that travelling, when arranged by the Tourist Department, becomes more of a pleasure and loss of a worry than it used to be, and that the officers of the Department I have come in contact with have all shown their eagerness to look after the traveller’s convenience and the Government’s interest alike.”