ISLAND OF DREAMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19633, 20 July 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

ISLAND OF DREAMS.

ABANDONED BY* ACTOR.

IVAN MENZIES SELLS OUT. Ivan Menzies, the Gilbert and Sullivan comedian, is gradually slipping out of his scheme to establish a colony on Richards Island, four miles off the coast of Northern Queensland. Mr Menzies said 'that he was handing the freehold and all responsibility for the establishment of the colony to Mr J. W. Harris, an English retired chemist.

But Mr Menzies has insisted that there shall be reserved for himself as much land on the island as will hold a shack or a house which he might wish to build there. “The deeds,” said Mr Menzies, “are in the hands of my solicitors in England, but when they are received by me I shall hand them over to Mr Harris.

No Profit In Deal. "Strange as It may seem, I do not

appreciate money, so there will be no profit in this deal.

“I will sell out for what the island cost me, and not a penny more, but I may want to go there in several months or several years, and I must have a spot where I can build my shack.

Mr Menzies bought the freehold of the island, which Is only two or three miles round, for £SOO.

Why He Withdrew.

It was Mr Menzies’s intention to head the colony himself, but later he found that his stage activities and his work in the Oxford Group were as much as he could manage. Then Mr Harris came along, was impressed,' sold up his chemist’s business and look passage for Australia.

It will remain for Mr 'Harris to decido what he will make of the new colony—probably a pleasure resort. He will soon be joined by two English public school boys, Harry Bruce (19). a painter and gold medallist of the Royal Academy, and' his brother Stewart, aged 20. Not Religious Retroat. Mr Menzfes said the present proposal would have no relation to the original scheme for a retreat for religious converts. It would be entirely in Mr Harris’s hands how the 212

acres were used

“1 have done the pioneering work, and now 1 am prepared to look on and watch the colony grow brick by brick,” lie said. “I may visit the place when all Is settled.”