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(d) Plane Tables amd Viewimg-apparatus Arrangements are in hand for the installation of plane tables at- various resorts and places of tourist interest. More than twenty sites have been selected, and most of these have been surveyed and direction-rays to identify visible physical features of the attendant landscape have been plotted. Each plane table will have a simple alidade capable of alignment with selected rays to enable users to obtain, positive identification. Two telescopes and a powerful monocular are available for mounting on alidades of plane tables. The monocular is the salvaged half of capturedJapanese equipment which, together with a very strong pair of coast-watching glasses, was presented to this Department by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The latter war trophy will be mounted on a special tripod after reconditioning and made available for tourists' use at an appropriate resort. 111. PASSENGER-BOOKING ACTIVITIES The sales turnover for the year under review has exceeded all expectations and points to an increasing appreciation by the travelling public of the facilities, and advantages provided by the Department's popular booking service. Whereas the figures for sales in the preceding financial year amounted to approximately £850,000, the year just ended shows an increase of £150,000 r bringing the total for the period to approximately £1,000,000. As in previous years, special day, week-end, and organized party tours operated by the Department's Bureaux showed a marked upward, tendency. Prom various centres 128 separate personally conducted party tours were despatched, and a total of 2,610 persons took advantage of this comprehensive and simplified form of travel. These figures are not indicative of the numbers of persons that could have been handled had transport and accommodation been more freely available. In the Department's experience such tours " sell" with astonishing rapidity, and bookings are often completed within a few days of advertising. There is a definite demand for this class of travel, and, as far as possible, having regard to the prevailing problems, that demand is being met reasonably satisfactorily. As time goes by the position becomes progressively improved. Organized tours of all descriptions are thoroughly comprehensive; they cover almost every place of interest to tourists from one end of New Zealand to the other. Nearly every place accessible by land transportation in both main Islands is covered by one or another of the itineraries planned by the Government Tourist Bureaux,, and " new ground " is being broken from' time to time. The result is that many places inaccessible by normal transport services are enjoying increased popularity because of the extending field of" the conducted party tourists.

Approximate Cost of Paper.—Preparation, not given ; printing (688 copies), £l9.

By Authority: E. V. Paul, Government Printer, Wellington.—l 947.

Pmice *6d.~]

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