SCENIC BEAUTIES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20102, 4 December 1930, Page 10

SCENIC BEAUTIES.

AMERICANS IMPRESSED. SEVERAL TO iIETUBN. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, December 3. The American tourist liner Malolo sailed this evening for Suva, Honolulu, and San. Francisco. A crowd of 300 or 400 people gathered at the Queens wharf to see the vessel depart. All the passengers were immensely impressed ■*vitb their five days' stay in New Zealand, and a number of them announced their intention before the vessel sailed of returning to the Dominion on holiday bent in the near future. "Of all the places I have seen the two countries I want to see more of are New Zealand and Japan," said Mr John J. Voelkel, of New Orleans. "I hope to come back in two years with my daughter and sample some more of the wonderful fishing you have at Eotorua. In the lake there I caught six of the largest rainbow trout I have ever seen, and they tell me it is nothing to get ten and twelve pounders at Taupo. Why, in America, if you land a three-pounder trout you put it on exhibition." All the passengers were kind in their references to New Zealand people, describing them as polite, hospitable, and courteous. "One does not feel in the least like an intruder in your country," remarked a woman passenger. "Everybody seemed pleased to see us and lots of people went out of their way to do us little kindnesses."

Waitomo and Rotorua. Dr. A. C. Cope, of Pittsburg < said that when, he got back to America he would never cease to extol the wonder of the Glow-worm Cave at Waitomo: "That cave surpasses anything I have seen on this cruise," he said, "and I rank it as the third most wonderful sight I have seen in my life, coming after Takou glacier in Alaska, which I saw under the Arctic twilight, and the crater of Kialauea, in Hawaii, which I saw in action in 1921. It is unfortunate for you that we in America seem to know more about Australia than this Dominion, whether because it is bigger on the map or for .other reasons I do not know, but the situation should really be reversed, of that I am convinced. You have natural resources that cannot be beaten anywhere in the world and the fact that only ±wice in your history has your country iiad a financial deficit is something to boast about." Several passengers who played on the Botorua golf links spoke in praise of the course and its situation. Mr Henry C. Flower, a prominent Kansas City banker, pronounced it to be the finest golf links in the world. "Kotorua need take its hat off to no one so long as it has that golf course," he declared.