A SWEDISH VISITOR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1926, Page 1

A SWEDISH VISITOR

IMPRESSIONS OF DOMINION. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 21. A visitor from Gothenburg Sweden, has been spending a few days in Christchurch. He is Mr Hjalmai Bengtsson, ALA., a journalist, who is making an extensive world torn, and contributing to various journals m his native land. Air Bengtsson has already spent sonic time in Stewart Island, Invercargill, Dunedin, and Greymouth, and last evening he left for the north He is duo in Sydney in February, and goes from there to the Philippines.

Mr Bengtsson, who .speaks English very well, said that he would like to have seen a little more of the country than was possible in the time at his disposal. It seemed to him that the Dominion had a concentration of all the different varieties of scenic beauty. There were the fiords of Sweden, the Alpine scenery of Switzerland, the lakes of Italy, and the agricultural and pastoral scenes characteristic of various parts of Europe. The South Island had given him much more of a beautiful nature than he had expected. One thing that impressed him was the great posibility of electrifying the Dominion. This, ho felt, would play a groat part in determining the future of the rural areas, bv making life in those areas more convenient and comfortable. In Australia, where there were not the same possibilities, the drift- to the cities continued, and they had the large concentrations of the population. Sweden had been electrified to a very large extent, and thatwas an important factor in maintaining a rural population. New Zealand should have the same experience. Mr Bengtsson spent several days at tlio Dunedin Exhibition, which he liked very much. Ho had not- expected to see so beautiful an exhibition in a young country with a small population. and in a rather small city. He did not like the exterior of the buildings from an artistic point of view it looked somewhat commonplace. At night the lights wore displayed without any well defined scheme of decoration. A fine exhibition should not ho decorated on the lines one might adopt for a country fair. However. the interior was the thing, and lie thought the display inside an excellent one.