ROBINSON CRUSOE, 1936.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19816, 21 February 1936, Page 13

ROBINSON CRUSOE, 1936.

SCOTSMAN GOING HOME. WORLD’S LONELIEST OUTPOST. After five years of sojourn in the world’s loneliest outpost, Easter Island, in the South Pacific, Mr and Mrs Robinson Crusoe, 198*6, are on their way back to Glasgow. In real life, Crusoe is Mr Murdo H. Smith, of Scotland, who was administrator on the island for an oldestablished British trading house. The company holds a concession from the Chilean Government for the agricultural exploitation ot Eastei Island, and Mr Smith ruled in solitary over 14,000 sheep and 405 Kanaka inhabitants. There was only one other white man on th.* island a < 'll i lean naval officer. The only Briton ever born on Easter Island is Johnny Smith, now 18 months old. He has never seen

aeropJane, a motor-car, or a train. the “Crusoes” have to travel more than half way round the world to reach home, and they will take 80 days to do it. When they reached Valparaiso, Chile, on their way home, the first thing they did was to read a newspaper—the first they had seen for five years. Mr Smith confessed he did not know that Italy and Abyssinia were at war until he was on board ship. The Smiths intend to stay in Glasgow for a year, after which they will return to their island and become Crusoes once more.