MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 121, 20 May 1909, Page 5

MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS.

[from our correspondent.]

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

You Maryborough people ought to thank the^Government, atftlparticularly the ,(much-abused . TojUrist DepaVtment, i'or what, if. suiucient publicity is given to ify YisVthe best advertisement the district has ever had. I refer to the handbook, "The Marlborough Sounds, and the Marlborough and Nelson, Districts," which has just been issued by the Tourist Department. It is a complete eyeopener for many Wellington people, whose ignorance of the splendid scenery and advantages of the Sounds has often struck me as being quite comical, considering such a superb pleasure and health, resort is at their very door, so to speak. The handbook o-ives a very detailed description not only of the Sounds, but the inland districts, and is beautifully illustrated. One of its best and most original features is a series of Maori legends and traditions about the Straits and the Sounds, which have been collected and translated by that clever writer on native subjects, Mr James Cowan, who acts as journalist to the Department, and who does not often get :ull credit for the fine literary worK he does in his modest/, unobtrusive way. These legends now appear for the first time in print. Upon the ever-interest-ing subject of "Pelorus Jack" there is much new information, from native sources, and you should certainly reprint in The Express Mr Cowan's account of the Maori traditions about Nga-whatu, or "The Brothers," and of the various native traditions concerning Cook Strait.- They make capital reading, and are well worth republishing. There is no work I know of gives such a mass of interesting information about ;Cook Strait, the Sounds, Marlborough and Nelson. I don't know the price of the work, but I think it is only a' shilling or so.