OTAGO VISITORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 696, 22 June 1929, Page 9

OTAGO VISITORS

SPECIAL TRAIN ARRIVES FRQM_SOUTH “BREAKING DOWN PREJUDICE” There was a distinctly Scottish flavour about the conversation on the platforms at the Auckland railway station this morning. That was to be expected when 310 farmers and their wives from were all talking at once about their tour of the North Island. The travellers arrived in the city last evening by special train after calls at Palmerston North, Wanganui, Hawera and New Plymouth. This morning they left for Whangarei, and after visiting Opua tomorrow they will return to Auckland on Monday afternoon. Tuesday will be spent in seeing the city, and on Wednesday the excursionists will leave for Rotorua.

Mr. lan Revie, president of the Otago Farmers’ Union, was enthusiastic about the trip, and said this morning that valuable lessons are to be learned from such extended visits. “These trips help considerably to breaK down provincial prejudice,” said Mr. Stuart Cameron, secretary of the Otago Farmers’ Union. “Friendships are made which last for ever, we see new methods of farming, and we are able to see for ourselves what the other fellow is doing.” Mr. John Christie, one of the oldest men to make the trip, comes from Wliarepa, nine miles south of Balclutha.

“We have been received with the most wonderful hospitality,” he said as the train was pulling out. “You have a magnificent climate, dairying is much easier here, and you have practically no winter. It has been a great trip.” Another farmers’ train, this time from Southland, will reach Auckland early in July.