A TRAVELLED ON NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2759, 14 March 1910, Page 2

A TRAVELLED ON NEW ZEALAND.

HE PREFERS EUROPE. “How do you like New Zealand?” A “Dominion interviewer who put ill,- familiar question to Mr. C. A. Weber, tile travelling companion of Count Bismarck, received a surprise that was almost a shook. The traveller s eye did not Hash with a new brightness, he gave no sign that ho intended to break forth in the accustomed rhapsody of praise. The Germans arc a phlegmatic people. He was amused, lie shrugged, and smileda smile that was only eloquent of restraint. And he made this serums repie • “Yfe think we have come too eery About live hundred years too early.” Adhere had the strangers been? j key had been all over the world. Last of all they had spent 3-5 days in coming to New Zealand. Thirty-live days to reach this country, thirty-five days to return, and six weeks tor their sojourn. Seventy days afloat- in order to s.c—what? Yes, they had been to W a'katipu— Invercargi 1!, Dunedin, Christchurch, the West Coast Road, the Otira and the Puller Gorges, Nelson, and Wellington. That lwid been their itinerary thus far. Yes Wakatipu was beautiful, but- it could not compare with Switzerland, seventeen hours bv train from Berlin, and such a difference in trains! ‘‘You call your trains expresses, but—a grunaec and shrug expressed far more than words. Certainly there was scenery in New Zealand, 'but fancy spending seventy days at sea, and Switzerland So tu>ai. Switzerland! —the stranger i»tttlod off .a. dozen of its glories for fusion of poor Wakatipu. And in Europe the hotels, the theatres, t.ie opera, tin' life and luxury! Yes, Otira was worth seeing. But how much easier to see Norway! The visitors would g<> next week up the Wanganui River anti to.Rotorua. Doubtless the Wanganui would be very fine, but- “the Now /.main ml Rhine!” It could not possibly be that Mr. Weber expatiated on the comforts, the refinement of Rhine travelling. “Perhaps in 500 years you will be like Euronc.” , _ . . 'fho traveller admitted that it would be. unreasonable to expect New /calami to become like Europe in sixty yeais }-)>' was- surprised to think so much pad l).:en clone in a short tune. It was a promising country; tlm ~«nnt and he had never beheld finer they were not disappointed, because they had not expected so much, even thoil’di they had been mid —ey would sec a country with attractions beyond any other. That, they thought, was ~n exaggeration. They would noßquieVly give second place -to the wonders ot Yellowstone Park. i +i,„++n tins The interviewer gathered that to tins tvpo of traveller—the city type— trave. in 1 New Zealand was attractive peiliapa. in patches, but for the most

part rather tedious, dull, and most uncomfortable. German naval development wa ® a very different topic touched upon. Mr. Weber saw no designs against Great Britain in the growth of German armaments. ‘‘Suppose X buy three shirrs and you buy five. Is it a cause ior a quarrel ” Germany had the finest army in. the world, she had riches, she had population; it was natural she would want a navy. Germans do not ask The reasons for additions to Great Britain s navy. Britain might decide to establish a great army, and Germany would ask no questions. Lord Kitchener had advised an army of 85,000 men for this little country of a million R<>nis. hli■ Weber thought it absurd. What need was there for such an army in New Zealand? Great Britain had nothing to fear from the increase of the German navy. That was his opinion.