THE BROTHERS LIGHTHOUSE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 149, 21 June 1878, Page 4

THE BROTHERS LIGHTHOUSE.

■ (N, Z. Times.) ..,;, " ; .'./. '.. This light, which may safely be pronounced to be the most useful ia the colony, is placed on the northern of the two islets in Cook Strait known as The Brothers. It is the guiding mark for vessels' psßsing through the Strait at night, and since it was. first lit , in September it has been a great boon to masters of vessels. The island is nothing but 8 large rock, some 230 feefc in height, and great difficulties had to be overcome in landing material upon it, and getting it up a tramway to the site of[ ..the lighthouse. It is impossible to discharge anything, if there should- be even a slight swell, and frequently a steamer has had to dodge about for days waiting for a chance to put some one on shore or to tike off a person who has found himself impri* soned'on the, islandby the sudden rising of the' sea. '''In the beat weather the landing ir not a very easy thing to accompfish, and the constant wash. of the water bss made the concrete platform which. h»s been laid down, so extremely slippery that one has to be particularly carefolto avoid a fall. There h&aAeen many a tumble upon it. and not a few narrow escapes of slipping into the water. In a bad north-wester a tremendous sea rolls home, the waves dashing against the shore with Buch force that they run up the rocks a long distance, a'nd;the spray is. driven right over tha- tower, the glass of which Ja at j times encrusted with a fine coating of salt, There is but little soil, though ; 'there is plenty of guano, and the graps i^confin^d to a few tufts. Noneof the | keepers have fowls or other live stock, .lizards and sea , birds being the only things to be seen. When the-* men were first engaged at the works it was hardly safe for them to go out at night owing to the number of birds that wire flying about, and a man- often got a etingingblow in the face from a wild fbwlLgoittgjwiih the wind Lf^Ndw' most of the, birds have gone to the other island and to the smaller rocks. A considerable number of; lizards of a rare ?kini have beW from time to time captured, .and. eotn.e of : them, a.re, in the Coloojal Museum, where they always attract' the attention of visitors. Living onjbjs barren place is not, very cheerful, yet the keepers, of whom there are fpur, seeni to. like it well enough., Tim station has advantages not possessed by most of ihe others, for each man has a month's leave in turn, having three months on the island and one, off, but during his 1 aye he has to report himself daily at the Marine Store here, and do .any work ; that is required. Not-wilhstanding-this the month is very much of a holiday, and ia highly prized by the men/ The Brothers is used' as a training school for new lightkeepers,: arid there is generally one i there getting initiated into the mysteries 1 of the calling. _..... The light is a second order flashing; white light, on the dioptric system, illuminated with ,'paraffia, the lamp .being fitted with one of Captain Doty -8 patent burners. There are eight sides, sod the light flashes every ten seconds, \ one .minutes twenty, sseconds; being occupied in each revolution, T j^ lantern was made in Edinburgh, and the \ apparatus in Paris by Barbier et i Fenestire, the whola being executed from deigns, furnished by J). and- T. Stephenso^q, engineers ( {p. the ., Northern Board of Lighthouses at Home, acting on instructions from the Marine Office in Wellington. , The lamp, has three wicks, and is fitted with a central button to regulate the flame. In orderi to point ; out the position of Cook's; rock, ani£onulw lease (being \a portion! of a ? fifsV order apparatus)^ shows red over an arc of sdeg. This lamp has two wicks, and is on the same principle asJ the main one, the chimney being; ee>lored to show the red light. At^ai distance of twenty-two nautical miles,the flash i 6 visible, in clear weather, to, a person on the deck of a ship, the height of the lantern above the sea being 268 feet. : Iron bark was used for the framing J of the tower and totara for the planking, the whole being built in a thoroughly subsiahiikl manner; and as thehaioht of the roof is only 28 feet above the "rock I the tower stands as, securely as need be' 1 in. the worst weather, The force of the 1 windlii during a fierce gale, and thtf register of the. anenometer wad once read by the; keeper ,, asr showing 1 the speed of the wind as 2000 miles for' twenty-four hours/ This would seem to be opeu to question, but, at any rate, it blows as hard there ns anyone who has been at the station^ during a bad gale had felt it, blow.any where else. All the works on the Hand were carried out by .the Government on day labour, under the direction of Mr W. Cl Matfio, who ig now engaged in superintending the works at Cape / Maria Van Diemeh in the far nprtbVTfie tower waa erec Mt^ rom ; a jplag^prepared ,by Mr Blackett, maribe en'gioeeV. X capita:!

I dwelling-house, , stoutly built and | roomy, is provided for the keepers, who find it snug and comfortable' in the worst weather. It is of wood but ; extra atout timber baa been used : throughout* Owing to communication ; with the main land by the Stella, or in any other way, being infrequent, and necessarily uncertain, a stock of aait meat and biscuits is kept in reserve. There are not, as a rule, many changes of .diet, though flab, caught, off the rocks, give some variety. We tch ia kept by the keepers in turn, the first ehiit being five hours and the other two four and a half .hours each. The man on duty can signal to the dwelling by means of a whistle attached to a tube, and by this the keeper whose turn it is to go on next is called. This arrangement, .has; one drawback; for there is a whistle in the room of each assistant keeper, and when the signal is given, all are a wakened— rather unpleasant for the man who has already done his watch. It would probably be well to have each lighthouse in the colony connected with he keeper's dwelling by an electric telephone, so that conversation might be carried on. This would save a good deaK oiF running backwards and forwards, and other inconvenience, and the; expense would be but small. - [ The visit paid by,, the .Stella on Tuesday enabled one of our staff to take a trip to The Brothers, and to lay before our readers, some information which ia not without interest.