TRISTAN D'ACUNHA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 267, 7 August 1919, Page 6

TRISTAN D'ACUNHA

Sir—l was pleased to see in your issue of August i an account, taken from the Manchester "Guardiaii," of the Island of T-toan d'Acunha. I had the rare experience of visiting the island on my vav from England in 1862. I came out in a small sailing boat, the Southern Cross, just then built for Bishop Pate-' 6on for cruising among the Melauesian Islands. We sighted the island at about 3'o.m. on December 26, 18G2, distant ahout forty-five miles, the peak of the mountain, hem* visible above a bank of \louds. The next day we ran on till within about four miles of the land, when wc sent off a boat to get some fresh water, to replenish our tanks. This we got from the stream which runs through the settlement and tumbles down we cliff thirty to forty feet high on to the beach. I went oil' with Smith, our firstmate, in the boat, and we spent a. few hours there. We visited one of the houses, where lived an old sailor, who : had been forty years on the island, and whose wife, an American darkey, gave us some cake and milk. When she heard we had a woman on board (we were lrin<ring out: Smith's wife and a small llov) she took Smith aside,' and asked bum if he could set her some crinoline steel. Smith was able to accommodate her with a 'i'tle and 1 suppose the darkey figured in'tlie'onlv woman of fashion after we ■ left \t the time of our visit there were only some thirty-five people on the ishnd. divided anicngst five families. Some voung men and boys who cams down to the beach were dark-ramplexion. h) like Creoles. The settlement is tflv vihlv wind-swent. I saw a small patch d potatoes surrounded by a wall about four feet high, made of rough bits of *toii» and the potatoes on the side of ?he patch sheltered by the wall were green and healthy, while the rest were shrivelled by the wind. The captain bought four sheep, two geese, potatoes Tiiilk and fresh butter, and gave the islanders some coffee, biscuits, and flour. The onlv boat: they had. a whaleboat, bad recentlv been damaged, and they, had no. timber with which to repair it.—l am. etc., _ „„ CHAS. P. POWLES.

The council' of the Sunday School ■Onion met last evening. Mr. Arthur Hoby, president, was in Ihe chair, and there was a. largo attendance of delegates. Mr. Alex .Tohnston presented a' report on the Youth Workers' Institute Ir, be held next month under tlio com'iiined management of the union and the city Bible classes. It was decided to agree to the Auckland Union's proposed bnsis for the formation of :<n association of Sunday school unions, and to suggest that the executive for the first two years be an Auckland one. It was decided to iccomniend that the London Unions Diploma of Honour bo given to Mr. George Tiller, who hns 53 years' continuous service to his credit, nil I>ut two ot llrse b-jing in connection with the Jtu-.i-nnki Street Methodist School. It was decided In accept, with thanks, the offer of Ihe licv. 11. Broddock to supply a number of coloured cuds appealing for support for missions. It was announced that the results of Ihe scholar;?" examination would be available in n few days. The examiners have decided lo cancel one question in Grade V, and to nlhvr full marks to candidates, in Grade 11, whose answers to a tortain question showed a knowledge of the lesson actually read, although the question might bo te.ken as requiring a knowledge of facts not actually in tho text. An appeal twib made for. library books i'or country jclwols founded V Mr. Hot*.