NEW ZEALAND SCENERY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2152, 19 June 1889, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SCENERY

In the course of his address at Fairlie Creek on Saturday evening Mr A. E. G. Rhodes, M.H.R. for Gladstone, said :— "The publio of New Zealand are at last beginning to realise that one of the most valuable of our national assets is our natural scenery ; every year the number oi tourists who come to New Zealand from Australia and Europe is increasing, and I have no hesitation m saying that New Zealand is destined to become tho Switzerland of the southern Hemisphere. I have spent a considerable time m Switzerland myself, and from my own knowledge of New Zealand can say that onr mountain scenery is quite as grand as anything there. We have the advantage of being within a few days steam of Australia, with its wealthy and rapidly increasing population, who will be driven more and more every year to come over to New Zealand to invigorate themselves m our bracing , mountain air. This county can boast of some of the grandest scenery m i\ew Zealand, and we must take care that we get our Bhare of the toorißt traffic, and this can only be obtained by making oar district accessible. A bridge over the Ohau would enable through commuuAC&> tipn to be established from Lake Wakatipu to Mount Cook, and would enormously increase the number of tourists passing through Fairlie Creelf on their way from Mount Cook to Timaru.