WAR EFFORT OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 182, 29 April 1940, Page 3

WAR EFFORT OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS

Men And Production VISIT BY MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, April 28. The Chatham Islands are playing their full part in the British Empires war effort, said, the M.P. lor Lyttelton, Air. AlcCoißibs, who has returned Lroiu a visit to this remote part of <--onsititueuey. Several young men out ol the small jxipulation have eniisteu, but more important is the energetic drive that is being made to yj ol ' 6 " 6 ® the production of the islands. Mr. McCombs said, that shipments of sheep and wool front the islands this year would be bigger than they have ever been before. . Mr. McCombs returns with set eial proposals for improving the lot of the islanders, and for aiding them in their efforts toward maximum production. Most important of these is a i>roposul for road construction, to which little attention has been given in the past, chiefly ' because roads have not been, really necessary. . The standard method of transpoit iu the islands is still the saddle-horse, and Mr. McCombs estimates that there must have been 150 at Waitangi when the Centennial Memorial Hall was opened there recently. But there are now several motor-cars and a motortruck. and if tibese are to be used to advantage, specially in the direction of assisting economic effort:, there will have to be roads for them. The Dairy Industry. The suggestion is that the Main Highways Board should subsidize work carried out by the Chatham Island County Council In exactly the same way as work done by county councils in New Zealand is assisted. The proposal wi-.l have its disadvantages for the Islanders, Mr. McCombs said, because motorcar users will then have to pay the full petrol tax. Better reading, said Mr. McCombs, would make possible the re-establishment of the dairy industry. Mr. McCombs was absent from New Zealand for 18 days, and be described his passages in the Tees, one of the smallest passenger vessels in the British merchant navy, as “very good.” He attended the various Centennial celebrations and visited Te Ngaio, Te One, To Roto, Owenga, Kaingaroa and Pitt Island. On the last-mentioned he saw some of the best natural pastures in his experience, carrying five sheep to the acre. At Kaingaroa, a fishing settlement, he saw the loading of cases of fish by means of drays and surf-boats and he described this work as possibly one of the most'severe tasks undertaken in commercial work. Men and horses worked from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. the following morning, in and out of the water, and in a strong southerly wind of intense bitterness.