HARASSING THE FARMERS’ CUSTOMERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 221, 26 January 1928, Page 4

HARASSING THE FARMERS’ CUSTOMERS.

ASSUMING that the strictures passed at Nelson by Sir Benjamin Fuller in regard to “ red tape ” annoyance of tourists by lending regulations are correct —and we would hardly expect overstatement from so well-travelled and seasoned a man of the world—the conditions referred to are highly detrimental to the Dominion. New Zealand is spending thousands of pounds upon a wide-spread publicity campaign, and it is all of a piece With the notorious stupidity of multicontrol public activities that one set of civil servants should he spending monfey to attract people here, while another equally zealous set acts in such a way as seriously to discourage tourist traffic. Sir Benjamin is reported as having stated that he -visited the Dominion four times last year, and four times he had to supply multitudinous details of his family history, where he was born, his age, etc., and was kept waiting an unconscionably-long time before being allowed- to land. The difficulties of getting a passenger's motor car on “ terra firma”

and all in order for touring must indeed be exasperating. Before he could land his car Sir Benjamin had to deposit £250 in cash in order to guarantee that the customs regulations would be obscived. Even after this astonishing demand had been met he was forbidden to take the car off the wharft and down to the post office, under its own power, for registration purposes. By the time he had got through with the business he no doubt fully believed the assertion of the Sydney secretary of the Automobile Association that he could more easily frank a car through England, Europe and the United States than he could to New Zealand. The above resume is full enough to give a clear idea of the causes of complaint. What readers will now want to know is just where the shoe pinches the toes of a dairying community. Let us come to the local aspect.

Every tourist to New Zealand is a very probable consumer of butter, cheese, eggs, milk, bacon, potatoes, onions, and a variety of other food stuffs produced on the land, and it is therefore very obvious that as the tourist traffic grows the New Zealand consumption of New Zealand-grown produce will increase. In view of the great battle for markets abroad for our products, the prospect of increasing local consumption is not one that should be dampened by ridiculous and harassing rules and regula-

Time was when tourist traffic was looked upon askance by the rural communities, for the ratepayers rightly objected to being saddled .with the cost of upkeep of roads for the tourists. But conditions have changed, inasmuch as the main highways scheme and the petrol tax have altered the basis of payment in such a manner as to lighten the burden on rural ratepayers in proportion to the benefits received. It is now generally accepted that good motor roads must be provided everywhere, and therefore the more tourists we get here to help to pay for them, and to consume our produce, the better. Members of Parliament representing rural constituencies may serve their electors well by insisting upon the removal of the harassing restrictions of which Sir Benjamin Fuller has so caustically and capably complained.