TOURIST DEPARTMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 6 August 1929, Page 4

TOURIST DEPARTMENT

INCREASED REVENUE According to the annual report of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, the revenue for the year rose from £65,447 to £72,658, while the expenditure increased from £76,865 to £82,987, showing a difference between the receipts and expenditure of £10,329, an improvement in this respect of £IOB9. In response to requests the department opened an office in Napier for the booking of tours there, and so far thu business had been eminently satisfactory in its results. The main items of interest to the department during the year were the opening of the hostel at Milford Sound, the new hostel at Waitomo Caves, and the opening of 'Mr Sullivan's hostel at the Fox Glacier, Westland. The near completion of the Rotorua-Waikaremoana Road via Ruatahuna brought'up the question of the necessity for further additions to the department's hostel at Waikaremoana, which, although only recently added to, would require extensions to cope with the large flow of traffic that it was anticipated would come via the new route, which was one of exceptional beauty. A new launch had been ordered for tho lake, the old one having done yeoman service for about a quarter of a centurv.

The department was contemplating the resumption of the Te Anau hostel and steamer, and the purchasing of the present building at Lake Manapouri—or, failing that, the erection of one on the Crown land adjacent to the lake. That action would bring the whole of the Fiordland country tinder the direct management of the department, that is, Cake Te Anau, Te Anau-Milford Track, Manapouri, and the Doubtful Sound Track —and should tend to greatlv improve tourist traffic to that region. The report added that plans and specifications for the new bath buildings at Rotorua were approaching completion.