THE KING’S EMPIRE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12259, 24 February 1937, Page 2

THE KING’S EMPIRE

IKELAXH—THIS WILD AVHST It is tlie laud of bare bills and rugged cliffs, where the heavy Allan- || tic surge comes thundering in with ;|i immense power, and where the civilisation of Piccadilly (it is civilised, we suppose?) seems far off indeed. |Ji Here are Aran and Achill, islands jij to remind us that the past lives in |j; the present, and that Ufa can he a stiff battle against stern conditions, t In stony nature of the unwilling :r soil makes cultivation difficult —and rather hopeless,, one would think. i ! t; The stormy seas prevent much, fish- , ing, except from large boats, and even then the risk is always great. It is true to say, we believe, that the sturdy people of the Aran group r are frequently reduced to the hate necessities of existence, hut this hard fare seems to agree with them, ana they are exceptionally healthy and also line and upright in their h ,s - We do not know that there Is any |; prison on the islands, l[ The stranger in this wild west o' jl; Ireland, would possibly he struck |i, most of all by the extraordinary fi? shoes the people wear. They are made of raw cowhide with the h a * r Jli left on, and are tied on the feet with string. Before they are puf on Ijjtf H are wetted, as they get hard if they (■ become dry. Very odd it seems that wot shoes should he preferred to dry , ones. . fit If anything, the people of Acttw Island have a harder lime than tros of Aran. Dark moorland is about litem, and their agricultural methods are extremely primitive. It is ® e i:jt that we see the cottage door, op i and the pig and chickens come out. and here that we find tire greate* .* poverty, though by no means greatest unhappiness.