THE MARLBOROUCH SOUNDS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 100, 30 December 1913, Page 4

THE MARLBOROUCH SOUNDS.

The settler's life in the Marlborough Sounds country lias aspects whim would seem rather curious to the inland farmer, says the Lyttelton Times. Around the Sounds, with their live or six hundred utiles of coastline, there is some very good land, though its, area is limited, and many of the farmers carry on dairy work quite success-. fully in spite of their isolation and the sea and mountain barriers that eircuniscribeKtheir holdings and their operations. A lew years ago the settlers had to rely on their rowing and sailing boats for communication with each other, and the weekly steamer was| their means of getting to and from: the towns. There are very few goodj roads in the district even now, and these-are so tortuous, by reason of the Sounds' peculiar topography, that it is! usually more convenient to use the, waterways. The winding Sounds arel the farmer's best roads, and in these < days, instead of the old open sail-j ing boat, he has his oil launch, and in it he speeds smoothly and easilyaloUgj the calm inland seaways, taking ins; produce to steamer or market and bringing hack his stores. Practically'. every farmer in Pelortis and Queen! Charlotte Sounds now runs his own' motor-launch. There are, it is estimated, nearly three hundred launches! on the Sounds, and these convenient craft, together with that other con-; venienco, lie telephone, have improved the lot of the isolated farmer immensely. The latest development of tin 1 launch enterprise is the construction of a large motor-boat, driven by a twenty ■ horse-power engine, for the purpose of carrying passengers and collecting cream from the various farmers along the Sound and conveying it to the centra] factory at Picton.