HAPPY JAMESTOWN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22296, 23 June 1934, Page 11

HAPPY JAMESTOWN

AN ABODE OF TRANQUILLITY WHERE SILENCE REIGNS SUPREME Who is the Mayor of Jamestown? Where is Jamestown? What are its products and its interests? There arc probably few people outside the precincts of the Lands Registry Oflicc who can say, without reference to maps, where this little advertised town is situated. And yet it exists, although as a matter of fact it boasts no major or borough council, it has no financial problems, no by-laws, no rates ana taxes and no debts. For that matter it has no capital or assets either. Down its main street, flanked by no imposing buildings, no post oflice or police station, wekas disport themselves and an occasional kiwi may intrude, while it is not unlikely that remnants of the supposedly extinct notornis family nay exis* • within its environs. Happy town ! None of its inhabitants has any fault to find with the Government, nor have the inhabitants ever been known to protest against official indifference to the existence of their town. Nor are there any local jealousies or squabbles to disturb the idyllic serenity of Jamestown. Admittedly it contributes nothing to the prosperity of the Dominion, but on the other hand it asks for nothing. Where other towns and cities in, the : Dominion of New Zealand arc clamouring for assistance, subsidies and grouts ■ from a harassed Government, Jamestown sets a noble example that is deserving of a wider publicity than it has hitherto received —an example that should shame some of its sister towns into comparative silence. Jamestown's silence is not comparative. It is complete and utter.

The question might well bo asked: What manner of folk, then, are these ? Surely there is something unnatural in such contentment, such bovine acceptance of their complete oblivion! The explanation involves no research into obscure psychological processes. There is nothing unnatural about it. There is nothing unnatural about a place where Nature holds absolute dominion. For Jamestown lacks a human population, and there is no evidence of human enterprises. The only clue to its existence is on some of the more elaborate maps of the South Island, and an examination of one of these will disclose that it is situated on Lake MTverrow, near Martins Bay, on the West Coast. Bat there is no denying that Jamestown does exist, for in 1870 it was surveyed by J. Strauchon, subdivided and declared a Government town —a town named, there is reason to believe, after James Mac-andrew—-with the intention of establishing a settlement there.

The fact that no settlers ever took up allotments there (although two sections were actually sold) is beside the point, and is in no way prejudicial (0 Jamestown’s status as a township. Jamestown is still a town, and who can say that with the possibility of Milford Sound becoming established as a tourist port it may yet come into its own, waking from its 60-year slumber into gigantic life, thus fulfilling the dreams of its ambitious but unknown founder —a town with real people advertising its wares to American tourists, a stopping place in the itinerary of the busy commercial traveller? Stronger things have happened, and some sturdy schoolboy of to-day may grow up to be the first mayor of Jamestown, a town that is over 60 years old already. In the meantime the wekaa squabble undisturbed in the undergrowth on the main street, and native pigeons roost where the telegraph wires should run.