A LONELY COMMUNITY

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1927, Page 4

A LONELY COMMUNITY

" The Lonely Island,” a new lmok by .ill's Rose A. Rogers, is an account of Tristan Da dunlin, which is the home of perhaps the most isolated community in the world. The members think themselves lucky if they receive a mail every two years. The author is the widow of a clergyman

who went to the island as missionary and teacher. She spent almsot three years there, and in that period the only vessels to visit the place were Shackleton’s Quest, a little fleet of whalers, H.M.S. Dublin, and a tramp steamer, which gave them a passage to South Africa.

Tristan Da C'utilia is situated in the middle of the South Atlantic, far from t.he track of shipping. It was

annexed l>y Britain in 1815, and n j garrison iviis stationed there to prevent the island from being used as a jumping-off place for the rescue of Napoleon from St. Helena. When the garrison mas removed a few soldiers elected to remain there. Their number was increased by occasional castaways and wanderers, and the descendants of these form the present population of the island, about 140 in all. Some of the earlier settlors married coloured wives from St. Helena, which explains the dark complexion of the inhabitants. These have a hard struggle for existence. Tristan Da Cunha is merely an extinct volcano rising 8000 ft from the sea. Agriculture is confined to a tiny corner of the island. The soil is poor, and the climate severe. The people fish, grow potatoes and run a few head of sheep and cattle. In had seasons they endure real privation. Yet. al T though they have been offered land In Africa, they refuse to leave. This argues a certain want of enterprise which observers have noted in other relationships. They are governed by a sort of customary law. under which all are equal and no one has any authority over others. There is no one to givd a lead, and in consequence little common endeavour. A inerre energetie community would have built roads, opened new lauds for cultivation. and so forth. But they do not | seem capable of any corporate effort to, improve their conditions. For Ho rest they are a simple, kind-hearted folk, and although life on the island was austere, it is not without pleasant memories for Airs Rogers.