TOURIST AND PUBLICITY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 578, 8 July 1933, Page 4

TOURIST AND PUBLICITY

Rotorua, as well as Southland, will derive encouragement from the affirmation of his faith in. the virtues of proper publicity and the value of the Dominion's tourist trafRc given by the Hon. Adam Hamilton, Minister in charge of the Tourist Department, in reply to a Southland League deputation at Invercargill on Thursday. Mr Hamilton ; frankly admitted that it was not | until he had assumed the portfolio that he had realised that a growing tourist traffic had quite as much value as a large export trade. Not only that, but the Minister stressed the value of proper overseas publicity in developing the -tourist business and stated that he had already made arrangements for an extensive campaign in Australia and further abroad. Since his elevation to Cabinet rank, Mr. Hamilton has had a particularly arduous eareer and ! jwith his own portfolios and 1 ! others thrust upon him as the j result of the absence of other i Ministers from the country, he j has ?arried one of the heaviest burdens which has ever been entrusted to a new Minister. His heaviest responsibility, of course has been the difficult portfolio of employment which he was left to carry as a locum tenens for Mr. Coates who showed no disposition to resume it when he returned from Ottawa. Of more direct interest to Rotorua is the portfolio of Tourist and Health jResdrts and this Mr. Hamilton j has earried very capably in spite i of the restrictions which lack of | finance have imposed upon him. At a time when any services which do not yield an immediately measurable return are being strictly curtailed, Mr. Ham- I ilton has had the good sense to guard against a penny wise and pound foolish policy. The recent j decision to complete the Blue j Baths is an example. Mr. Hamil- j ton does not perhaps figure so much in the public eye as some j others of his colleagues but he j gives an impression of sincerity j and determination to grapple j witli his problems. He has some i of New Zealand' s finest fiord- { land and scenic attractions in his j own province of Southland and in : developing these, he will be con- ; ferring a benefit, not only upon i his own province but upon fhe j rest of the Dominion indirectly. j Mr Hamilton has already shown j that he is not parochial miiided j and in the good work of the j Southland League, which is I strenuously working for the ad- j vancement of the province, Rotorua shpuld see, not a potential threat, but an object lesson. Thefe is room for a similaf league in the Auckland province and for a similar organisation in Rotorua itself.