A NEW SOUNDS SURVEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 12

A NEW SOUNDS SURVEY.

SOME INERESTING PARTICULARS. A Daily Times reporter, in the course ot an interview with the- Hon. Thee. Mackenzie, Minister in Charge of the Tourist Department, referred to the question of making- another and closer survey of tho principal West Coast Sounds, among other things the Minister was asked what he thought of the suggestion made by Captain M'Donald —that a safe track he surveyed and laid down for the guidance of navigators in that locality. " Captain M'Donald's suggestion is an idea that has occurred to me with great force since the wreck took place," .said Mir Mackenzie. " 1 may say that I am quite satisfied that a careful survey will show that there are wide and deep channels, which can be safely navigated, right throughout that Westerrr Sounds country. The question of a survey is, however, a matter with the department of my colleague, the Hon. Mr Millar, and I have no doubt that he will give it his very careful consideration. It might be possible for the Amolcura to go there and do some- of this work. '' Dusky Sound is a very well-known spot, and some of the rocks which I see referred to as having been only recently seen there have to my knowledge been known for years to' navigators frequenting that Sound. I may say that that rock near Pigeon Island! has been known for 16 years to me, and every person visiting the Sounds ought to have known of it. "Captain Fairchild used to pooh-pooh the idea of there heme: any real danger about those localities. Upon one occasion I was anxious to see a spot that I had once or twice looked down into from tho heights above, and, as I asked the captain to go in if he thought it safe, I observed 'I know that Captain So-and-so would not risk entering this place.' He said, ' Yes, that is so: he was very sheered.' And then, pointing ahead to where a couple of young black_ swan flappers were in the water, he continued: ' To show you how dangerous this place is, I will follow those bride with my ship until I run them down. And he did so, following therm for over an hour. . "There is another little story that is worth repeating, and is to the point. When the Acheron was surveying these Sounds she was stuck up in Preservation Inlet for about three weeks by had weather. She wished to get round into Chalky Sound', but between the two a long ugly reef runs out for miles and miles, and, being _ a paddle steamer of a somewhat primitive type, she did not care to make the Tommy Chasland, a wellknown pilot of those davs, was aboard tho Acheron, and he said to Cant-sin Stokes, 'Tf you like to trust me I will toko you through a nassage in those vocks without going outside.' The canfain. who had trreat confidence in him. said: 'All right. Tommy : go ahead '—and away they went! The Acheron had in tow her consort, a. schooner railed the Otago. and Tommy set off with them through tin's narrow channel. Archie Fulle.rton. of Port Chalmers, who was an apprentice on board the Acheron in those days, told me about it. and, as he described the nlace, I examined the map, and said that that must be wb.n.t is now called Breakadr'ft Pass.i.g". p« said the captain must have called it by that name because the Otago, when going through th/> pa.ssxge broke adrift. She was not picked up ag.fi n until smme wee-ks later, in a rvlace where &*>* bad "-ouo for shelter undo" Puwsegur Head. 'Well,' 3" said, examining l WTace called Ota.go's F'ulW*on ««id thai: was no doubt tho pkc». for the Otago K"d r«fcpented! tWe wt.il the weather p3o.'W-at"d. I mention i-ln's as a rwiAter of intercs*-. ami to sbo'v v-W early navigators could do in tbe™> T mo" s-iy tb*t Car+ain FaijsSjil.'! and Cantain Prions hav. in resixwigs £> mv f-.ke*i *ho thrown '. 1, ""° when T have aboard. »nd it. Vi | indeed a jrlorioiis experience to enter that -

passage when the weather is wild and tha sea is breaking over the rugiged coast. '' I regard the West Coast Sounds as a groat national asset! I believe that fchs> valleys and lakes and alpine- scenery oi that neighbourhood arc sure to attract vast numbers of people to New Zealand every year, and that these Sounds eboulc! be available in a safe condition to our visitors and our own people goes without saying."