Our Holiday Resorts.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 34, 18 November 1893, Page 3

Our Holiday Resorts.

No. I.—STEWART ISLAND

(By Pilgrim.)

Tins island, if people only knew it, is one of the most attractive retreats, if nor, the most attractive, within reach of rhe general rim of such as can afford it and desire a change. And when it is better known it will become the snminer resort of many a pilgrim. It is adapted to every degree of robustness, and presents facilities for much variety and every degree of physical exercise and enjoyment. It has the advantage also of being near and accessible, and of being secluded and shut off from all the disturbing elements of the social struggle, public or private, in all its forms. Not yet spoiled by civilisation, it is splendidly savage in forest and slope, inlet, crag and shore. If the means of communication were just a little more accommodating it would be invaluable to peoplein towns, or who otherwise would be the better of a temporary escape. And indeed it is marvellous to see what the change does for many of them, and especially for those who most require it. It is a pleasing thing to the philanthropist to seethe wild exuberance with which the adventurers of both sexes’disport themselves. How they roam and riot in the new life, and how they eat! Their luncheons and dinners have a new meaning to them. Where they would pay a shilling at Invercargill for their lunch (to compare small things with great) they ought to pay two here. What do they do ? you would ask. They go helter-skelter along every track and shore; they sail, they row, they fish, they swim, they hotanise, geologise, conchologise, and, though last not least, as I have already hinted, they eat. They go to the inlet and picnic, carrying out with them baskets and hags end billies, chocked with—as Dugal Dalgetty would say—provant, mostly in solid form, returning with the same baskets, &c., full of shells and themselves full of new sensations and memories that will last for ever.

To come here without visiting Patterson’s Inlet and exploring its splendours, is to take your egg without salt or your fish without butter or sauce. You go to the inlet, and when you do. don’t be satisfied with a mere survey of the far-receding reach of it, and that general view of the woody slopes and hills that hound it, but creep into its quiet enchanting nooks and coves and you will see many a wonder of water and land. JSTever go there except on a day of splendour and sunshine if you value really beautiful and delectable memories. They sometimes contrast a satyr with Hyperion. Such is this island in its winter and summer aspects, and such is Patterson’s Inlet on a dull, rainy day and a sunny one. The Wednesday Awarua is the only regular means of communication at present, and as far as its capacity and purpose are concerned it is to be respected. If it could only be developed in its proportions and its time were less absorbed by its other duties things would be more complete and convenient. As it is, time, which is big with so many human hopes, has to be trusted. The near future is expected to produce a better state of things ; more traffic, a telegraph cable, more going to and fro, more local settlement and development — more everything. Many of the better class, doubtless, are deterred from a sojourn in this place by the lack of first-class accommodation such as the better sort of hotels present. That can only be when money can be so invested with advantage, though, indeed, the investment itself would help largely to create the means of its profit. But those who have a stocking of bawbees anywhere have learned to be cautious in these evil and treacherous times, when monetary catastrophes are coming off on all sides like

shooting stars. Whether the Government are doing all they can towards rendering this place more available than it is, I am not prepared to say ; but they are doimr something. They are surveying the more convenient strips along the shores of these bays, and clearing tracks to them, so as to render settlement more feasible, and they are going to build a new jetty for the benefit and convenience of all. The Government cannot be accused of altogether losing sight of the place, and it is to be hoped that circumstances will admit of their extending the beneficence of which they have made a beginning.

Memo, for tourists —There are four places at which tourists can be accommodated at Halfmoon Bay, viz., .1. Thomson's Temperance Hotel, and J. J. Harrold’s, J. Macrae’s, and R. Scollay’s boardinghouses.