VILLAGES AFLOAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 8

VILLAGES AFLOAT

STRANGE COAST LIFE

BRITISH COLUMBIA SOUNDS

A "FOUNDATION" OF LOGS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, August 4.

On the Pacific Coast,- in British Columbia, a score of small towns and settlements are built on floating logs. Such a settlement is Simpori Sound, comprising post office, general store, and school, besides ihe dwellings.

The problem of the safety of children is solved by themselves. From their infancy they are taught, to realise the danger surrounding their daily lives. They learn to swim at an early age. Should a child fall into the waters of the sound his comrades do not run for assistance; the older ones take to the water and support him, .while the clamour set up by the others quickly brings help. No lives have been lost in many years of log-boom settlement. A pioneer settler, Mrs. H. J. Mann, wife of a logging contractor, has three children, and boards three others. All six have' fallen into this arm of the Pacific when they were small,

In, some "floathouse" settlements, lifebelts are issued to all children. Mrs. Mann does not believe in the practice, because children will not become so self-reliant if they know that such aids to safety are at hand. The homes are modern, with hot and cold water and sewerage. The floating settlement is always anchored to the shore in the Vicinity of ,a river, creek, or spring." Houses are not of the log cabin type nowadays. Some are built of "shakes," split from cedar logs and attractively painted, the interiors finished with dressed and polished timber. Surrounded by Nature's flawless beauty, in snow-capped fjords, they are brightened by gardens, ablaze with rhododendron, hydrangea, sweet pea,,and lily. All spare "land" on the log boom is given over to flowers, vegetables, and a uttayground for children.

You can get a permanent wave on a floathouse. A hairdresser Is aboard the store boat from Vancouver, which calls four times a year, "bringing a full stock of women's apparel, of the latest fashions. Prices compare favourably with city shopping. Dances are held regularly. Guests come from a distance of 30 miles by water. They hold their dances in the bunkhouse, accommodating 125 dancers. At one, recently, the children raised 50 dollars for the Queen Mary solarium.

On their radios they pick up the 8.8.C. clearly. The Church does not neglect them. Anglicans attend service on the Columbia Coast Mission ship which calls every .'fortnight. Catholic and United Church pastors hold regular services. "We drift to the city periodically for the advantages of civilisation, but we are glad to return to our floating homes," says Mrs. Mann. "We get mails once a week from the regular coastwise steamer service. We are within six miles of telephone and wireless station. There is a radiotelephone 12 miles distant. I haye a busy life, cooking for 15 persons,' and caring for six children, but I find time for bridge and other social, diversions. I have lived 14 years in floathouses at Simoon, Kingcome Inlet, Actlin Sound, Greeniway Sound, and O'Brien Bay. We exchange visits with friends by cabin cruiser gasboats, which many of the women residents can operate. Our children get much enjoyment out offishing, besides their normal diversions. We did not feel the effects of the depression. We haye no one on relief, no crime, no locks on our doors."