Chatham Islands

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29235, 20 June 1960, Page 3

Chatham Islands

Sir, —Smoked Chatham Islands blue cod is a delicious delicacy and unsmoked is excellent, also. The islands mutton is tender and sweet; I ate it for three years. Kobe beef cannot hold a light to first-class Chatham Islands beef. And the Japanese pay from 9s a pound for Kobe beef Of course, fishing, like shipping is dependent on the weather. Lack of port facilities is another handicap. I know nothing about Chatham Islands woA so no comments! The people are most kind and hospitable. A horse-riding holiday would be a real treat for tourists from New Zealand centres. Industrialised food production, using the island’s labour, seems to be the only way out. The Chathams appears to be suffering from the same handicaps observed there 40 years ago. If our politicians cannot solve the present difficulties may I suggest that the Chatham Islanders emigrate to New Zealand.—Yours, etc., RALPH S. WHEELER. June 18. 1960.

Sir, —Mr H. W. Marshall’s letter is patently a cri de coeur and, as such, may perhaps evoke the sympathetic interest it deserves. The plight of the Chatham Islanders is no new theme, and it might be pertinent to ascertain when the Prime Minister last visited these islands. It used to be an elementary principle in military life, whether one commanded a regiment or a platoon, that one's first case was not for those snugly enconced in the headquarter dug-out, but for the chaps stuck out in some isolated post suffering all sorts of physical discomforts. Mr Nash’s peripatetic activities, translated into military terms, seem to suggest that he is more addicted to “making his number” with the headquarters of other formations than to visiting the fellows holding his own front line, some of whom, for example, the people of Niue, have had some pretty sticky times lately.—Yours, etc., M.T. June 18, 1960.