ISLAND PHILOSOPHER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 515, 26 April 1933, Page 4

ISLAND PHILOSOPHER

FROM FAR SOUTH SEQUESTERED BLISS IN THE WHNDY FALKLAND - ISLES ' - ' FAR FROM MADDING CROWD The thermal regions attract people from every corner of the vglobe, but rarely does anyone come from such a remote and storm-swept quarter as the Falkland Islands. A lady born and brought up in the Falklands was a recent visitor and, interviewed by a "Post" representative, reveqled herself as a philosopher, setting forth ideas so far removed from the ordinary as to constitute a notable eontribution to contemporary thought. The newspaperman was first of all attracted by the eultured idiom which brought within view a range of subjects accessible only to the student who probes deeply into the mystery of things. He expressed surprise and ventured to suggest that the standard of lif e and education in the Falklands must be exceptionally high. "Do not confuse the Falklands with New Zealand or any other country that vaunts its civilisation," the visitor said. "From what I gather the civilisation of to-day resolves itself into the glorification of noise and a purposeless rushing to and fro. Look at these," she exclaimed, pointing to the passing motor-cars, "look at the people who driv-e them. Not one appears to have an aim in life other than to tear throngh the country at the highest possible speed regardless of set purpose and in pursuit of no set goal. If we passed our time in this manner we should be as stupid and backward and as muddle-headed as the rest of the world." Life In The Falklands When questioned regarding the conditions of life in the Falklands that evolved this enviable state of being, the visitor became more than interesting. The islands lie directly in the track of the storms that originate around Cape Horn and off the coasts of Terra del Fuego, and sweeping north attain a velocity of eighty and ninety miles an hour Nothing thrives and little can -live on the more exposed parts, but in tbe sheltered oases on the lee side there is ' life in abundance. Flora of Islands The flora of tbe islands is remarkable. Among the shrubs is found the pungent oxalis or scurvy grass, much used in the early days as an antidote for scurvy, a disease common among whalers long confined to their ships and to a limited and unsuitable range of food. The medieinal balsam also flourislies. This plant exudes an aromatic oil much ' used in pharmacy as the basis of many effective remedies not only for external injuries, but for internal disorders, even of a malignant type. The presence in the Falklands of the balsam plant is one of tbe most wonderful of nature's many wise economies. It is where it is most needed and where there is nothing to take its place. Sheep Industry The Romney Marsh sheep( imported in the first place from New Zealand) is the only variety that can endure the cold and damp of the Falklands. Immune to f oot-rot they ac- . quire a hardihood that renders them a valuable article of commerce. Fed on tussock in a mean temperature the year round of 42 degrees they are exported in prime condition to the mainland to fatten on the rich grass of the Argentine. When questioned regarding the gales that tear through the islands the visitor refused to see in them anything but a gift of the gods. "The wind rises in fierce staccato shrieks and carries on in a sustained thun•derous roar like the concerted action of massed artillery; and this combined with the tumult-of the sea is the grandest voice in nature. To souls in tune with the Infinite, the tempest brings a message of inexpressible grandeur. We welcome the whirlwind and the storm; their sublimity coincides so perfectly with our own aspirations." Shackleton's Shudder Determined to find a flaw somewhere in this Elysian retreat, the reporter ask§d if it was true that the late Sir Ernest Shackleton never alluded to his visits to the Falklands «without a shudder. The climate filled him with dread and caused him to yearn for the blizzards and minus temperatures of the Antarctic. The lady admitted the impeaehment and gave as a possible explanation, in addition to the idiosyncrasies of Polar explorers, the frost-smoke that in very cold weather rises from the sea in thin volumes. This "smoke" is more injurious to the human frame than tho keenest atmosphere for it is no sooner driven over the land than it creates such a cutting and exquisite cold as to penetrate the minutest chink or creviee. In the houses, fires are kept burning night and day, winter and summer, and every aperture is carefully guarded to exclude the piercing frost. "When this occurs we retire to the fireside, close down on the wireless for rarely from anyone of the multitudinous transmitting stations of Europe or America do we get a programme that comes up to our expectatTons, become reabsorbed in the classics or sink into an abyss of thought. In any case it is better than having our nerves frayed by the noisy ubiquitous motor-cycle or ancient jarring motorcar, two of the prime abominations of a boasted civilisation that everyone talks about, but no one ever sees or experiences." The Iceberg The Antarctic iceberg, so massive in build as to seem to bid defiance tq time, came next in the. interview and was described in grapliic terms. "In the_ lengthened twilight of summer not infrequently the stately berg passes by in full view of the shore. They st'and revealed like white-robed inountains in half-tones of the most delieate beauty. The mirage transforms them with marvellous realism into cities exhibiting every variety of architectural splendour — temples, columns, towers, battlements, groves and gardens. And, then swiftly as they continu© their drift northwards, the sea is once again a glassy plain of water studded with fragments of floating ice. S'ometimes when swept

by a fierce tide and wind through the sea, the icebergs resemble a line of battleships. So gigantic are the icebergs that they continue their journey a further 1000 miles north before finally disappearing." Pirates and Wreckers It flashed across the mind of the reporter at this juncture that at one time Port Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, was the rendezvous of pirates and wreckers who attacked passing sailing ships or lured whalers to their destruction on the rocks and plundered the wrecks. He asked if this were not so. The lady listened with coinposure and after a few moments' reflection said that a painstaking investigation — it would have to be painstaking — into the past history of the Falklands might reveal an occasional lapse, but on the other hand the pirates and wreckers had transmitted to posterity a race of descendants of which the whole world might be proud and this would more than make amends for the loss every now and then -of a ship or a ship's crew. The visitor leaves shortly for Monte Video and from there will travel by a local trader to her island home. "You have encircled the globe," said the reporter. "You have visited scenes renowned in history and good to look upon; can you, away from your native' .shore, siiigle out any one spot or realm that more than another has fixed itself upon your mind as the fairest of them all?" ' "Yes — the Falkland Islands," came the prompt reply. ■ The reporter capitulated; his questions were at an end. " " "