CRITICISM OF AUSTRALIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20264, 5 August 1937, Page 6

CRITICISM OF AUSTRALIA.

"NOTHING TO OFFER.” DESCRIBED AS TERRIBL’E PLACE. Because Australia is such a "terrible place," Captain Percy Seymour and his wife packed up and sailed by the Mariposa for the South of France, says the Sydney Sun. They arrived four months ago, lured by reports of Australian sunshine. They left because the climate, the restrictions and facilities generally were so unpleasant that they could not remain. •Captain Seymour, a retired officer of the Royal Flying Corps, said that he did not go away soured. * lie spoke of Australia as he found it and had a good word for the hospitality of Australians. “We have found that the climate of Sydney Is terrible," he said:, “It cannot compare with that of the south of France, where Mrs Seymour and I have lived for years. There we get 10 months’ sunshine a year." “Nothing to Offer.” Then he opened his shoulders and hit Australia well and truly to leg. “From a tourist point of view, you people in Australia have absolutely nothing to offer. I cannot get a drink in your hotels after 6 p.m. unless 1 happen to belong to a club,” he declared. “Your hotels are very ordinary in the cities and in the country they are a darned sight worse. I do not know what you are going to do in 1938 to cope with all your visitors. “I-f we had come to Australia 30 years ago when we were young we might have been able to put. up with it," said Mrs Seymour. “Hut to-day we find that it is not at all like the Continent. You are a long way behind." “Yes,” added the captain. “That is so. And you ran tell people that we were cold and could not get central heating in our hotel because, we were told, Australians did not like it.”