RECLUSES OF THE SOUNDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 402, 11 January 1909, Page 4

RECLUSES OF THE SOUNDS.

■ : - (nr iEtEOKirn— srsciii 'cobbespoiipent.) .", i'' .■'..■■.■ ■.■■,.".'■ Chrlstdtiurch, ; January 10. ■ ■■-'•' Mr ''■ R .'•: 'M;'i Laing, describing"... in; the 1 "Press" the recent visit.to the Sounds of » ; number of: Christchurch, residents, - » Those"'-'of--lis'- who-went:, ashore ■..at-. Bisbee Bay met ; a former teacher of the Dunedia Normal School; who pleads; a .hermit's -life on a little ■ island, several miles inside ot Puvse' y ur ?Point.":i,For. 'some ■ twenty.'.odd.: years He has lived by himself, chiefly An: thw sound;: and. has now lost all .desire to.-'visiti the outer 'worlds v.Before'liisv ar.nyaU.here he'spent'a few months, on an, islet not a mile in at the: junction of Thompson, -Smith,, Doubtful r and Bradshaw Sounds, and.it is now, named' after,.mia. Scvmour Island,'■".■ ..:;,/,.;' , : !■'.',''>■"■■ ■■'■■ '-.': ■ " The Sounds .have , always. .had .-.an at* traction;for the recjuse: or the solitary pro--, 'speotor; v , Sutherland,. who ; riow ; keeps the accommodation .house in;. Milfqrd, and »fter whom the great ifalls are: named, .spent years alone prospecting and' exploring;- DocheTty. who'long wandered, about Preservation and 'Dusky, seeking for valuable, minerals,.' and died suddenly in-one of the. Sounds,' was'■ another example of the .wanderer .who shuns the life of-the town.: Mr; Henry, the for-, mef caretaker.of Resolution Island,', and now at'Kapiti, also ; beloiigs' to: the same type. : "At Dusky Sound ,we. met Lieutenant Goldfinch, the presont, caretakor : of Resolution Island, and his wife, Tho latter two ■ months" ago, in a' bravo attempt, tojoin. her. husband,. walked from Qropuki to Prescrvation Inlet; Becoming exhausted on. the way, she took 'shelter while her guide, sought-; for help at Preservation 1 Inlet,. Ho left her protected from : the storm in a.hollow tree, with a firo in front of it... Unfortunately the tree itself caught firo,- : and.to avoid being burned she had to leave it and spond the: rest. of. the night exposed/to -the inclement wca-V tlie'r On assistance ■ .arriving : she finally roaqiied Preservation. Inlet,; mid-from .there was able' to join her;husband'by boat-.",