NATIONAL PARKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1938, Page 7

NATIONAL PARKS

POPULARITY IN CANADA. VISITORS EXCEED MILLION. OTTAWA, Canada. Canada’s national parks hit a new height in popularity during the fiscal year 1927-38, when for the first time the number of visitors exceeded one million. Visitors to the National Parks during the period April 1, 1927, to March 31, 1938, totalled 1,008,690, compared with 908,161 in the preceding fiscal year, an increase of 100,529, or 11 per cent.' Motor tourists constituted approximately 96 per cent, of the total number, accounting for 974,059, while rail traffic is estimated at 34,631. The National Parks of Canada are performing an important national service in providing remarkable facilities for outdoor life and recreation. Twenty in number, they include a total area of 12,525 square miles. Originally established to preserve the landscape in its primal state and to conserve wild life, these great natural playgrounds now. rank among the outstanding tourist attractions 'of the Dominion, where thousands of Canadians and their guests from other lands enjoy vacations in beautiful surroundings. Resevations for accommodation during the 1938 season already received at Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies indicate that the fame of Canada’s National Parks as vacation areas is known' all over the world. Some holiday seekers will come from such far-distant continents and countries as Africa, Australia and India. Many from the British Isles will visit the National parks during the coming summer; others will come from Bermuda, Ceylon, Cuba, France, the Hawaiian Islands, the Netherlands and New Zealand. While nearly every country of the globe will be represented in the annual trek to these great national playgrounds of Canada, the greatest tourist invasion will be from the United States.