OUT OF THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 173, 23 July 1936, Page 6

OUT OF THE WORLD.

- STEWART ' ISLAND'S CHARM(By J.C.) Stewart Island's people complain that their island is neglected, forgotten and forsaken by the rest of Xew Zealand, and especially by its mainland neighbour, Southland. They want public works to bring a l)it of money into the place and to employ the fifty ablebodied men who have no steady jobs. They say that a road is needed from Half-Moon Bay (the township and landing place) to Paterson Inlet, the beautiful harbour of many islands. The distance between the harbours is only an easy stroll, but everything is in miniature in those parts, and the farming land which it is said could be opened up by a road is small in area. Stewart Island is not particularly suitable for farming; the soil is peaty, and most of the island is covered with a great rain forest. But the climate is mild and pleasant most of the year; and the island, with its bush and its in-and-out coast contour is a more agreeable place- than the open plains of Southland. Fine Sailors. The people of Stewart Island are a fine, hardy set, used to the sea and the busli. There are some descendants of Shetland islanders among them; most of the islanders are of the old whaling and sealing stock, a century-old blending of pakeha and Maori. There are no better sailors and fishermen in New Zealand. Many have been employed as seamen in the successive Government steamers; they are skilful boat handlers. But fishing, oyster ing and the rtiutton-bird industry engage only part of the population and occupy only part of the year; time hangs heavily on the men's hands for months. The Government has for many years done its part towards making the attractions of Rakiura known, and has tried to direct tourist travel in that direction. When Sir Joseph Ward launched the Tourist and Health Resorts Department more than 30 years a n°> one of the first places to be given publicity was Stewart Island; it was in Ward's constituency and he naturally took considerably more interest in it than in the Far North. But while the rest of New Zealand has been roaded and railwayed and made more easy of access for the world's travellers, Rakiura has been left to its ancient peace. The often stormy strait and the want of a passenger steamer keep it isolated. It needs a better service from the Bluff; but the immediately pressing want is work for its willing men. They deserve a share of wealthy Southland's expenditure.

The island is an unusual place, with a native flora differing in many respects from the bush of the mainland; there are more flowers 'in Rakiura than 011 the windy mainland, and the wooded islands and the creeks and bays are a joy to explore in the summer. North New Zealand people looking around for a place of quiet and solace might do worse than try Rakiura. At any rate, they would be safe there from crazy speedway traffic, and they would find some survivals of the old New Zealand life. Search for Historic Document. Visitors might even engage in that historytreasure search that a warship's crew and a historian made without success this year. The crew from all accounts were keenly interested in that mysterious long-buried bottle containing a document cached there when H.M.S. Herald visited the island in 1840 and proclaimed British possession. No one knows exactly in which bay of Port Pegasus that bottled scrap of paper was buried; that is where tlie treasure hunt comes in. The warship will 'return to Pegasus in the summer, and the odds are two hundred to one that the tars will beat the historian to the spot. Naval interest in the Herald document is keen, since the crew have been given to understand, unofficially, that a bottle of rare old Jamaica, best Navy ration, was buried alongside the other bottle, for luck.