Holiday-time in Britain.

While New Zealanders are enjoying the indoor delights associated with cold weather, in England the immense annual exodus from the cities to the sea is in full swing. Although money is comparatively scarce at the present time, almost every city dweller seems to be making a special effort to raise funds for his summer holiday this year. This should spell not only better health all round, but also good business for the railways. To meet prospective heavy demands upon their service the four big group lines have made special plans for augmented travel facilities of every kind, with the added lure of really cheap fares to the leading coast resorts.

For some weeks now, there have been prominently displayed on the railway station bookstalls, in the publicity bureaux of the different lines, and in the various tourist offices scattered throughout Britain, holiday booklets galore, describing in attractive fashion the joys of this and that resort, and telling how to get to any particularly fancied corner of Holidayland, what to look for on arrival, and where to put up during the stay. The most ambitious booklets issued by the Home railways for the guidance of the holiday-maker are the hotels and apartments guides, brilliantly planned and beautifully produced volumes, running to as many as one thousand pages, and sold to the public at sixpence per copy. To take but one of these publications as an example—the “Holiday Haunts” annual of the Great Western Railway for 1931—this has a captivating coloured cover design introducing a sun-tanned “bathing belle” sporting on a west-country beach. The territory served by the line is dealt with in seven sections, and a beautiful series of some 400 photogravure illustrations shows what a wealth of scenie grandeur Britain holds for holiday-makers. Among other features, this thousand-page directory of Great Western resorts contains a coloured frontispiece depicting Plymouth as seen from historic Drake's Island. There is also a large folding map of the Great Western Railway, and seven sectional maps of the principal holiday areas. A large proportion of the volume is devoted to a very comprehensive list of holiday apartments and hotel accommodation. After twenty-five years of success, “Holiday Haunts” is this season an even more fascinating sixpennyworth than ever.