M.P.'S ON TOUR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1913, Page 2

M.P.'S ON TOUR

IN THE SOUTH ISLAND. (BY TEtEGBAPH— P&EBS ASSOCIATION.) INVERCARGILL, 2nd Feb. The -group of touring North Island members of Parliament were met on Friday afternoon at Tapanui by prominent Southlanders, and have since been on motor tours through the province. ' On Saturday they left Gore in the* morning, and visited the Mataura, Wyndham, and Fortrose districts, arriving in Invercargill in the evening. To-day- they motored out to the western district, in the vicinity of the Waiau River. Tomorrow they continue their tour towards Lumaden, and will return to join the Northern express at Gore. Members express themselves as favourably impressed with the quality of rural Southland, and astonished at the enormous area of land suitable for cultivation. • ' "QUITE A REVELATION." CHRISTCHURCH, 3rd February. The Hon. W. Fraser, Minister for Public Works, in the course of an interview with a * Press representative, remarked that some of those included in the party of North Island members of Parliament who recently went over the route of the Otago Central railway had never been in Otago before, and some had never been in the South Island. "What they saw was quite a revelation to them, continued that Minister, "because they had heard opinion of the country that differed from what they actually saw. With the capabilities of the country which they passed through before they reached Dunedin (from a. farming point of -view) they were much impressed, and later on they were similarly impressed with the potentialities of the country served by the Otago Central line. They learned one thing, viz., that the Central Otago country does not consist of a gorge from the Taieri to Pembroke, and, from opinions expressed by members of the party at banquets and other social attentions tendered them, it appeared that they were astonished at the potentialities of the district, which was quite different from what had been reported to them. They were also much struck with the class of land in Hawea Flat and other places."