CHATHAM ISLANDS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1932, Page 5

CHATHAM ISLANDS

IN SORE PLIGHT

FOOD AND CLOTHING IS SCARCE.

(Per Press Association — Copyright. )

CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 13

Tlie residents of the Chatham Islands are leading a hard life during the present period of low prices, according to Mr W. W. Toy, a Lyttelton shipping agent, who has returned from a round trip to the Islands. The position at the Islands, Mr Toy said, is very bad, and the closing of the fish freezing works for the past eight months ha« been a. serious blow to the men. At Kainga.roa, where one of the two fisheries is situated, there are only four families left. Most of the eleven men who were drowned by the foundering of a launch lived at Ivaingaroa. At the larger settlement of Owenga the fishermen and their families have been having '.a very hard time during the winter. “There is nothing in the way of relief schemes or assistance there,” . said Mr Toy. “It is a case of nothing for nothing. In moist cases the, men’s credit ha,s been stopped. They are just scraping out an existence, and some of them have several children to provide for. Living ie very dear. .Flour is practically unknown to these families. They live mostly on potatoes, fish and mutton, and mutton is not cheap. A carcase of mutton costs the men 12s 6d at uwenga and 15s at Waitangi. As the men have no money they have to pay for the meat in work. The clothing of the men and’ their families is giving out and they have no money to buy more. There is very little money on the Islands at all, and moist of the trading and other transactions is done by means of cheques or orders, and by barter. The men at Owenga all took up sections a few years ago and now. they have no means of keeping up the payments.” Mr Toy said that something should be done to assist these families. The men were net whining about their hardships, hut were struggling grimly for an existence. He thought that even in these times the people of the mainland would do something to assist these lonely islanders. “Clothing is wanted,” said Mr Toy, “and anything in the nature of foodstuffs; also something for the’ children—not so much toys, perhaps, ns clothing and some good food. The owners of the Tees have offered to carry anything for the relief of these distressed families freight free. The chief difficulty is the shortnesis-of the—-time available. The Tees is to leave Lyttelton at four o’clock •on Monday afternoon on her final trip to the Islands this year. If anything is to be done it will have to be done quickly.” The accounts of the great supplies of fish available at the Chatham Islands were not ‘‘fish stories,” Mr To-y stated. Blue cod were in abundance. An hour’s fishing for bide cod sufficed him. They were so plentiful that it ceased to he sport, it was just hard 1- work hauling the fish in. Things move slowly at the Islands and as an instance Mr Toy said that at one of the two hotels he was served with beer from a 36 gallon cask, the only one on tap, which had been tapped in April last. The residents were not nearly so enthusiastic as they had been about the new wharf at Waitangi for which a contract' had been let. The wharf only served Waitangi. The only good thing about it was that it would provide work for some of the men. “In my opinion,” said Mr Toy, “if another poll were taken now, the proposal would he rejected.” He said it would be better for the Government to spend the money in assisting the industries at the Islands.