ISLAND NO ONE WANTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1081, 19 September 1930, Page 13

ISLAND NO ONE WANTS

INN WHERE NOBODY DRINKS Piel Island is the island that nobody wants —with a licensed inn where nobody drinks, where ships go by that nobody watches, and seabirds live that no one disturbs. Nobody lov* s it, it seems, for no one will buy it (says a correspondent of a London newsjjaper). The island was given to the Br -- row-in-Furness Corporation by the Duke of Buccleuch on condition they bought its eight cottages and its ini:. The city treasurer is now its licensee. Without a special Act of Parliament the town cannot develop the island into the holiday resort that Nature apparently meant it to be. For years the town has offered it for sale at a very low price, fixed by the Charity Commissioners. What might it not become if it had its chance? Here are some of the suggestions that have been made: —Holiday resort, seaplane base, bird sanctuary, private “kingdom” for a tired business man. One pictures the pleasure a capable auctioneer would have in offering it. Hear him! “Think of it, ladies and gentlemen. Nineteen acres of sheer joy—all your own, with the sea for front door and back door. No policemen, politician-, pedlars, or pamphlets tc pester you. “Come and own the inn. where the knights of Piel were installed in days gone by. Remember that the Norsemen were the first owners of the island. Look at the historic castle you have to live in and the cottages to let to paying guests or poor relations! Why, even Pepys wanted it for a dockyard.” Alderman C. G. B. Ellison, a former Mayor and now chairman of the Finance Committee, tells of holidays he has spent on the island and his wonderful memories of the lakeland mountains as seen from the island. “Motor-boats,” Mr. Ellison said, “can reach the island in an hour. It might be made the centre of sea trips from Blackpool©, Morecambe and Fleetwood. The rents from the land and buildings alone would make it a paying proposition at the price the town puts on it.” Yet so far it has received only one offer, and that too low for acceptance!