STEWART ISLAND AS A PLEASURE RESORT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10571, 18 January 1896, Page 2

STEWART ISLAND AS A PLEASURE RESORT.

" Come, let us to the islet's softest shade,

And hear the warbling birds I" the damsel said; ■'•■And we will sit in twilight's face and see The sweet moon dancing in the rata tree, The lofty .accents of whose sighing bough .Shall sadly please us as we lean below ;

Or climb the steep, arid view the .surf in vain Wrestle with rocky giants'o'er the main,

Which spurn in columns back the bafflud-spray. How beautiful are theie I how happy they AVho from the toil and tumult of their lives, •Steal to look down where naught but ocean strives! Even he, too, loves at times the blue lagoon, . And smoothes his ruffled mane beneath the moon."

Man is the strangestof all animals. Let any prospector discover a nugget of gold or a lump of quartz with. the precious metal stickiug round in some out-of-the-way locality, to reach which entails large expense and much discomfort,, and hundred?, of seemingly soberminded, substantial men become unsettled— seized with the desire to leave the occupations of years, the garnering of a certainty. Let it be generally understood that this new Eldorado has, besides, a horrible climate, that the fiends of fever and dysentery hover in the midnight «ir, that the natives of the country look upon underdone man as the greatest delicacy they cm get, and the picture becomes irresistible. Throw ia crocodile*, boa constrictors, and rattlesnakes—the stampede commences immediatsly. Few, if any, of these men would think of trying their luck at any iiold within easy reachwhere safety aud moderate comfort wera assured, and the attainment of wages, at any rate, could ba calculated on as a certainty. A tiger in search- of bis breakfast doesn't go cruising round miles off to satisfy his want, but operates on the neatest bullock be ctn fiud. Tbe beo sucks the honey from the flower most adjacent to her hive; the swallow utilises tbe first fly. Man alone neglects the blessings showered at bis feet; heedless of the attainable, he wastes himself and hie opportunities soiling after the impossible.

Chewing the above thoughts, it struok ma that but few holiday excursionists ever visited Stewart Island. It was too near, got at easily, and at little expense. Was it worth going tv ? Perfect acquaintance with every part of the island, the result of numerous official visits during a series of years, places me in a position of vantage in advocating its unrivalled ohanrn as ia place of cheap and pleasant resort for a holiday trip, for it is a spot that offerß everything to please the eye, gratify the miud—cultured or otherwise, —and afiords healthf nl exercise to the 'body. Lovely eoenery; first-class sea fishing with net and line ; sea-bathing in sheltered bays on sunriy beaches in clear, emerald-tinted, pellucid water, whose bright beauty adds to the charm of the bsth as you float on its buoyaut surface; yachting, rowing, oystering—in the season, — ccsyfishing by moonlight, ferning, botanising, and shooting—what more could the heart of healthy man desire for himself and his human impedimenta ? Even the invalid obtsina health combined with pleasure at & modicum of inconvenience, that handmaiden of weakness, for the accommodation is good, and csn ba attained with little of the trouble and pain of land carriage which have to be endared in reaching most health resorts on the mainland. Taking passage by the small steamer running between the Bluff and the island, some threa hours sail o'er a rippling summer Bea — i c., if you pick a fine day^brings you to Half-moon Buy, the centre of modem settlement, when, v bout will laud you either at Harold's Point, on ■ which, in lovely grouuds, that ancient mariner has erected a comfortable and commodiouT houte of accommodation abutting on the most perfect little bathing nook on tha island. On proceeding to the head of the bay more tbau one hostelry opens its comfortable and clsauly arms to the seeker after health, pleasure, or rest, amidst surroundings where nature i 3 clothed in her most witching garb, ever changing ever beautiful.

Half-moon Bay, the first and chief port of call of tho Bluff steamer, mny he considered tha oSntte of Stewart Maud civilisation, the sjat of Stewart Island fashion, th* local habitation of its upper orust. Other portions of the island have contested this pre-eminence at various times of its onward progress in the great march, liut unsuccessfully. The fates have been too many for them. "The Neck," 'in the oldest and most reliable archive?, appeals to have held high sway, and dwarfed the pretensions of tha other bays in the early history of tho island. Here dwolt the time-honoured 'aristocracy of the settlement—the whalers. These sons of the palefaeea had takenunto themselves wives from amongst the daughters of th« dusky lords of the soil. The miscegeaatiou hud proved a success, both as regards quantity and quality. The sons grew up stalwart, handsome samples of humanity. Tho daughters! Oh, what poetic fervour could do justice to those dark-eyed Houris with the long-flowing ebon locks, the pearly flashing teeth, the deep rich blood mantling on the rounded olive oheek, and the soft, crimson-tinted, poutiDg lips, which seemed to sigh " Come, kiss me 1"

With eyes that were a language and a spell, A form lika Aphrodite's in her shtll, With allljer loves around her on tha deep i Vnluptuous as tbe first approach of sleep; Yet lull of life—for through the tropic cheek Tho blush would make its w.»y, and all but epsak: The Bun-born blood diffused her cheeks, and threw O'er her cleaT nut-brown skin a lucid hue,

Like coral reddening through the darken'd wave, Which draws the diver to tho crimson cave.

Such .was this daughter of the southern eeas,

In those good old days " The Neok" was the place lor all "the big drunks," "tho little hopß." Where are those days gone ?

Hnna Breitman gave a party i "UOusiajiJJiat.iiwty now 2

The old warriors have gone to the happy hunting ground—staunch to tha bottle up to the last. Ti»e youtig mfin hava migrated to wider fields for their euergie.?, ai»d the maideus have been nought out aud cirried off to adorn other homes. The owl and tha bat havo their abiding place in the ruins of Tyre and Sidon, and tbe last chapter of the history of " The Keck "closes with " Ichabod."

Walter H. Pearson,