Yachting in New Zealand.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 6, 1 April 1911, Page 601

Yachting in New Zealand.

No one lias yet thought if worth while to review the sport of yachting as one of the best for the Dominion's future. Which is strange, considering the enormous extent and varied beauty of our coast line, its abundance of shelter, its teeming life, and the strong part it is in all probability destined to play in the history of these line islands. The national asset offered by that coast line is a strong race of hardy seamen lit to defend their country in the hour of need, and to triumph in peace by carrying its flag to every country under Heaven. The more yachtsmen, fishermen, and boatmen this country can keep afloat, the better the chances in flic battle of life, which one day is bound to be far more strenuous than anything of which at the present moment we have any conception. It is matter of history that when the Armada was sailing up the Channel, many a boat, many a skiff, and many a yacht put to sea in the wake of Howard and Drake ami Winter and the other famous admirals, to have a shot at the Spaniard. This explains the victory over the Armada and the immense commercial development of the years that came after. It is a lesson of history which these countries ought not to allow themselves' to forget. With that object wo havedetermined to make .the first review of the gieat national pastime which the race has, with its a!'-pervading instinct, established in these waters. The task has been difficult, mainly for lack of recorded information. But there is abundance of recollection, and on this store—which we hope one day to see crystallised in good permanent print—Ave have been permitted by some of our good friends to draw. To these we beg to tender our best thanks.