PEOPLE TO MOVE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 266, 22 August 1936, Page 5

PEOPLE TO MOVE

ISLAND OF TRISTAN DA CUNHA. BESTED BY PLAGUE OF RATS. DESTRUCTION OF THE CROPS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) DURBAN, August 21. Fighting a losing battle against the plague of rats which is menacing potato and othe'r crops, the entire population of Tristan da Cunha is contemplating transfer to the island named Inaccessible Island. which is an unpopulated island in the same group. 1 • According to the officers of the British freighter Larnala, which has arrived at Durban from Tristan, a small party of Tristan residents is transferring to Inaccessible Island to plant an experimental wheat area. If the crop succeeds" the population will followAn aura of romance surrounds Tristan (la Cunha, which is midway between South America and the'Cape of Good Hope. It is 21 miles in circumference, rugged and precipitous, rising in a central conical mountain to 7U40 feet. Britain took possession of the island in 1817- to keep watch on Napoleon, then a prisoner on St. Helena. When Napoleon d,ied in 1821, the soldiers were withdrawn, all _ but Corporal Glass and two companions, who, with some whalers, founded the present settlement. The colony flourished, and in 1829 numbered 27 souls; in 1873 there were 80 people there and 75 in 1905. Property is held in common, there is no strong drink and no crime. The natives are healthy and long-lived, and the oldest iaets as governor. Nearly all the able-bodied men were drowned in December, 1885, while attempting to /board a vessel. Inaccessible Island is 20 miles from the main island. It harboured two Germans in 1871-73, when they underwent a kind of Robinson Crusoe experience.