PLAGUE OF RATS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20505, 25 August 1936, Page 12

PLAGUE OF RATS

PLIGHT OF ISLAND RESIDENTS United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright DURBAN, August 21. Fighting a losing battle against a plague of rats, which is menacing the potato and other crops, the entire population of Tristan da Cunha, is contemplating transfer to an island named Inaccessible Island, which is an unpopulated island of the same group, according to officers of the British freighter Harnala, on arrival at Durban, from Tristan. A small party of Tristan residents is transferring to Inaccessible Island to plant an experimental wheat area. If the crop succeeds the population will follow. Tristan da Cunha is the chief of a group of Islands of volcanic origin lying in lat. 37.6 south and long. 12.2 west, discovered in 1506 by a Portuguest admiral (Trisao da Cunha), after whom they are named. The population numbers 127, and the inhabitants are said to be very long-lived. The principal settlement (Edinburgh) is in the north-west of the island. In spite of periods of distress the inhabitants refuse to leave the island for the Cape of Good Hope, to which they are attracted by offers of land. Inaccessible Island is a lofty mass of rock with sides 2 miles in length; the island is the resort of penguins and sea-fowl.