STEWART ISLAND NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 17756, 6 September 1917, Page 3

STEWART ISLAND NOTES

(From Our Own Correspondent.) The spring has started with boisterous weather here, none of the fishing boats being out all last week. In the first fortnight of August there were more fish caught than there has been for the last three or four years. The sawmills are working full handed. Messrs Me Galium and Co. have removed the hauler engine from North Arm to Kaipipi, and so are working double-handed there. The Presbyterian Church held their 14th anniversary on 30th August. Mr W. Millar, who is spending a prolonged holiday here, very .kindly tutored the choir for the occasion, and they did him credit. An address was given by the Rev. Mclntyre. The business report was read by the secretary, Mr E. Jensen. Several anthems were sung by the choir, and songs were given by Nurse Sommerville, Miss Dorothy Back, and Miss Nellie Sommerville, and recitations by Miss E. Ramsay and Miss Clara Castensen. Twelve small children, trained by Nurse Sommerville and Miss Back, gave three very nice songs with choruses, which were much appreciated. A very nice supper was given by the ladies of the congregation after the concert. Mr Cosgrove, late of Riverton, has started a boot repairing shop, a want very much felt on the Island for some time. It is to be hoped the Council will do something to the track leading to the bathing beach, which is in a very dangerous state, there being a drop of about ten feet from Mr Squires’ side, which is the only public way of reaching the beach with the tide in. This is the most popular bathing place on the Island. Word came through of Rifleman R. C. Williamson being gassed. It is not yet known if it is serious or not. Rifleman Williamson is well known on the Island and by many visitors. He, up till the time of his enlistment in the 3rd Rifle Brigade, ran one of the excursion launches for Mrs Hicks’ boarding-house. Rifleman Williamson is a son of the late G. K. Williamson and Mrs J. Williamson, of Dunedin, and grandson of the late Captain Scollay of this place. He has two brothers at the front.