FLOATING TOWNS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 196, 4 September 1937, Page 14

FLOATING TOWNS

Families of Loggers Anchored to Shore

SCORES OF SETTLEMENTS VANCOUYER, Aug. 4.4 On the Paeific Coast, in British Columbia, a score of small towns and settlements aro built on floating logs. &uch a settlement is Simoon Sound, comprising post office^ general store and school, besides the dwellings. The problein of the safety of children is solved by theraselves. From their infancy they are taught to realise^ the danger surrounding their daily lives. They learn to swim at an early age. Should a child fall into the waters of the sound, his comrades do not run for assistance; the older oncs take to the water and support him, Avhile the claiuyur set up by the others quickly brings help. No livcs have been lost in lnany years of log-boom settlement. A pioueer settler, Mrs. H. J. Manu, wife of a logging contractor, has three children, and boards three others. All six have fallen into this ara* °f the Pacific when they were small. Self-reliant Children In some "floathouse" settlements life-belts are issued to all children. Mrs. Mann doee not believe in the practice, because children will not become so self-reliant if they kuow that such aids to safety are at haud. Tho homes are modern, with hot and cold water and sewerage. The floating dottlement is always anchored to the shoro in the vicinity of a river,- creek or spring. Honses are not of the log cabin type nowadays. Some are built of ••shakes," split from cedar logs and .-xtlraetively painted, the interiors finI ished with dressed and polished timber. { Surrounded by nature's flawless ' beauty, in snaw-capped fjords th^f

are brightened by gardens, ftTSlaze with rhododendron, hydrangea, sweet pea and lily. Ali spare "land" on the log boom is given over to flowers, vegetables and a playground for, children. One can get a permanent wave on a tioathouee. A hairdresser travels on the score boat from Vancouver, whieh calls four times a year, bringing a full stock of women 's apparel of the latest fashlons. Prices eompare favourably with city shopping. Dances are held regularly. Guests come from a di'stance of 30 miles by water. They hold their dances in the bunkhouse, accommodating 125 dancers. At one danee recently the children raised £10 for the Queen Mary solarmm. The ChurcK does not negleet them. Anglicans attend serxnce on the Columbia Coaat mission (ship, whiich calls every fortnight. Catholic and United Church pastors hold regular services. No One on Relief, "We drift to the city periodically for tlio advautages of eivilisation, but we are glad to return to our floating liomcs," said Mrs. Maun. "We gec mails once a week from the regular coustwise steanier service. We are within six miles of telephone and wireless station. There is a radi,o-telephone 12 miles distant. * "I have a busy life, cooking for 15 persons aud caring for six children, but E find time for bridge and other social l diversions. I have lived 14 years in iloathauses. We did not feel the effects of the depreasion. We have no one on relief t no crime, no locks on our doors."