BAD ROADS PROVE CHECK ON TOURISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 347, 7 May 1928, Page 10

BAD ROADS PROVE CHECK ON TOURISTS

AGED VISITORS FEB STRAIN j It will be a mild shock to » New Zealand Government, a* as to the people themselves . learn that tourists from nr , are cutting short theip this country through the viJL/ tudes of rough roads and ally hard travel to pleasure sorts- * The assertion that this is haww is made by Mr. George Russell wU* 1 ' an industrialist from Kenya, now in Auckland. Mr. Mayers, who possesses *n mate knowledge of the New ileaUw the ’eighties. expresses r that the roads leading to resorts are in such bad conditk»i • least 70 per cent, of your tourist ./ tors are getting on in years, and not stand the rough travel ov tworts of your roads,” he said when commenting upon the faciS afforded the visitor to this countrr ‘ “In Canada, England and I have been I have met folk chief comment upon New ZesdaMK been about its atrocious roads." ** Mr. Mayers was in New lad in 1881, and after roughing |* kI, for some years, he entered the trade in Queensland. Later estatoS 1 ing himself in Kenya, which to be a land of opportunity for qZT P/ his experience of sugar-growing: treatment. To-day he is chief w* big sugar-refining company there/ * He was used to roughing it. he ay but even with his experience to y!» port him. he found the going v®ry fc/ on our New Zealand roads. He his party, had travelled through / South Island, and later traversed t> North Island thoroughly. j/ cases he lauded the other places he was disappointed. \c f rakei he deemed to be remarkable hi the hotel, with the intermittent ing system, was an unpleasant- >' rangement, and the calmly manner in which the man foote after the lighting system inform visitors that “I am going to bed »©* and all the lights will be off in minutes.” caused them to wonder they had come to the right place. 7 hotels, generally speaking, were wr passable, but in many cases the nai agers did not seem to care about ticomfort of travellers: one of the courteous managers was found in t backblocks at Taihape. The hotel* if the big cities, he thought, were ouhmodern and comfortable.