OUR TOURIST RESORTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2313, 5 October 1908, Page 2

OUR TOURIST RESORTS.

PROTEST AGAINST EXPENDI- ■ TURE.

[Special to “Times.”] AATSLLINGTON, Oct. 3. “It is becoming a- public scandal,” said Mr. A. L. D. Eraser last-night in the course of a vehement protest against w-liat he considered to be the •unduly large expenditure on . the tourist resorts of the Dominion. “The amount of money that is being spent at- Rotorua and "other resorts,” lie declared, “is a crime, ,an absolute crime. AVho is getting the benefit? The country ? No; the public-house keepers.” The member for Napier went on to solemnly declare’tihat “the voice of the people -will he heard if this extravagance is allowed to proceed. “Money for howling greens and wings for baths,” he scornfully cried, in reference to Te. Aroha. “They ought to liave tlieir wings clipped.” He urged that tlie Government should acquire the hotels in these tourist resors, seeing that it had spent so much money an developing these places. He considered that much of the money spent in these resorts would be better expended in opening, up the back country than in “tickling the eyes of visitors.” The Hon. J. McGowan, who w-as in charge of . the Estimates at the timo, maintained that the expenditure at Rotorua and Te Aroha and other tourist resorts was absolutely justified, and that it.was more than recouped by the receipts.