FOR MOTOR TOURISTS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 53, 26 November 1926, Page 8

FOR MOTOR TOURISTS

A USEFUL HANDBOOK. Motorists touring the North Island during holidays will find the 1927 edition of the W.A.C. Year Book and Road Guide an invaluable companion. This bock, which is issued by The DOMINION for the Wellington Automobile Club, has been greatly enlarged, and this year contains close of 300 pages. It is now in the bookbinders’ hands and will shortly be available for distribution. "It can sqfely be asserted,” says the introduction, “that the present book contains many more facts and figures, and more general information about the North Island than have hitherto been accessible to motor tourists and travellers generally in any single volume.' The road guide section now contains detailed descriptions of all the principal routes traversing the country between Wellington and'Auckland. The con.-ise practical information given under everv town has been greatly amplified, and for fifty of the more important centres the motor speed limits, standing time for cars unattended, and parking places are given. There are also excellent in-and-out plans of fourteen centres. This information has never before been assembled in any publication. On eighteen routes distance tables are included on which are shown the distance from any centre on the route to anv other centre on it, and also the through distances from Wellington and Palmerston to anv centre on any route. In most of the tables the distances to Auckland and Hamilton from all centres are also shown. The distance tables have alul interlinking points, so that by one addition the distance is obtainable from any place on any one route to any place on any other route. Thus a motorist thinking of making a tour from, say, Martin, borough to Tanranga, can discover the distances by various alternative routes with next to no trouble.

The descriptive matter in the itineraries has been compiled with a view to giving in concise form the utmost information about aR scenic and other natural features of interest en route, and the exact location of historic spots passed, and an outline of the events that transpired at them. Altogether tills part of the ■ book will be found of interest to all travellers, whether motorists or not. Tile legal section lias been expanded, and a useful addition is a synopsis of Auckland citv motor by-laws. The motor camping section now contains the most complete list of North Island motor camping sites yet published. For golfers on tour there is a list of the North Island golf clubs, witii their memberships, the number of boles on the course (where this has been obtainable), and their secretaries’ names and addresses. By courtesy of the Tourist Department a list of ' North Island trout streams appears, and there is a summary of the new Taupo fishing regulations. Altogether the motor tourist is remarkably well catered for