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1907. NEW ZEALAND.

TOURIST AND HEALTH RESORTS DEPARTMENT (SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE), BY THE MINISTER OF TOURIST AND HEALTH RESORTS, RIGHT HON. SIR J. G. WARD, P.C., K.C.M.G.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, Wellington, My Lord,— . 28th June, 1907. I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency the report of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts for the year en-ding (he 31st March, 1907. I have, Ac, J. G. Wars, Minister of Tourist and Health Resorts. His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand.

The year under review shows the greatest increase in oversea traffic yet recorded in any one year. The increase is made up chiefly of visitors from Australia, to which country, on account of its comparatively short distance from New Zealand, we must naturally look for the bulk of oversea travellers. The prosperous condition of Australia, coupled with the added attraction of an Exhibition in New Zealand, no doubt accounted for a very large portion of the increase recorded on this occasion. New Zealand, by virtue of its climatic conditions and its varied scenery, so different in character from that of Australia, must ever continue to attract an increasing number from the Commonwealth. With the advent of larger and faster steamers it may reasonably be expected that the increase will be recorded in thousands annually. I think, however, the cardinal factor in bringing about the increase for the past year is undoubtedly the opening of agencies of the Tourist and Health Resorts Department in Sydney and Melbourne, thereby getting into close touch with the people of the Commonwealth. Since the opening of these agencies in June, 1906, a period of nine and a half months, the number of inquiries at the agencies in Sydney and Melbourne total 18,500. These figures need no comment. There is an honorary agency at Adelaide, but no record has been kept of the number of inquiries there. The number of visitors recorded from all countries totals 9,684, as against 7,142 for the previous year, giving an increase of 2,542. Valuing the expenditure made in the country by these additional visitors at £50 per head, the same foundation on which the former year's figures were based, the increase'! value of the traffic is shown to be £127,100, or an advance of slightly over 35| per cent, on the previous year, and an advance of 85 per cent, in three years. The following figures show the estimated value of the tourist traffic from 1903-4 to 1906—7, from which can be gauged the advance made: 1903-4, £261,000; 1904-5, £299,000; 1905-6, £357,000; 1906-7, £484,000. A pleasing result of the year's operations is the amount of direct revenue collected—viz., £18,202 ss. 4d., an increase of £2,381 14s. sd. over the previous year. Under normal conditions tin's amount would have been very much larger. While the Exhibition no doubt helped to add to the number of oversea visitors to the several resorts under the control of the Department, it had the very decidedly opposite effect on the number of visitors to resorts from within the colony. It is safe to say that several thousands of people this year spent their holidays at the Exhibition who would have otherwise taken the usual course of visiting one or other of the attractive show-places. A notable feature of the traffic to most resorts was the absence of the usual number of New-Zea-landers. Thus, Hanmer Springs, which draws the greater number oT its visitors from residents in the Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Districts, suffered severely in consequence of the Exhibition, and the other places suffered more or less from the same cause, and to a much greater degree than was compensated for by the additional influx of oversea travellers.

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