Service Car Silence

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 9

Service Car Silence

Sir, —I have just returned from Taupo by the service car between Taupo and Napier, and, being a regular visitor on that line, and having met the different drivers, I fell to wondering what the average tourist got out o£ that beautiful trip except a bit of nervous excitement at the Mohaka cutting and the Titiokoura and Taumangakuma Hills. The is interesting and historical from the. Eek Valley to Taupo, but the driv,er sits in moody silence, never proffering any information at the various interesting spots, and if perchance a brave tourist asks an intelligent question, he gets a laconic “Yes” or “No,” as the case may lie. Such landmarks as the scene of the Orepe Massacre are passed in silence. The startled tourist just sees a board, which might quite as easily be a traffic warning as a notice about such a tragic happening ns a massacre. Certainly a cheerful voice tells the travellers at the Rangitilfei that “we stay here for dinner”; but buck again to the wheel, and the mantle of silence again falls. No information is forthcoming as to the interest a botanist could get on the plains concerning the elusive New Zealand orchids which abound there. No voice tells the tourists when they are approaching the Rununga Falls. It is only by the grace of God and their own powers of observation that they see such things but a little enlightening information could make the journey so very fascinating. A person on that route would be just as enlightened at the end of the journey as he was at the beginning. A pall of silence is on everyone from Taupo to the Rangitikei, when the information mentioned before breaks up the shyness that travellers seem to suffer from in a full car of strangers. I think that it would be a splendid thing for the drivers (and they are such splendid men) to learn a few items of interest on their various routes, and to keep interested the minds of the travellers who come to New Zealand to see and learn things.—l am. etc.. E. W. HILLS. Wellington, January 9.

[When this letter was referred to th representative of one of the car services operating on the Taupo-Napier route, surprise was expressed at the allegations made. Drivers of the service over this particular route, he said, -were expected to supply information to passengers concerning interesting points on the road. Maps pf the route, showing every point of interest and containing additional printed information on the back, were produced, and every traveller was supplied with one ot these. The possibility of difference in the conversational powers of the drivers were mentioned, but tlie . representative considered it out of the question that journeys in this particular line of cars would be passed in stony silence.]