A MODEL ISLAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 468, 3 May 1890, Page 6

A MODEL ISLAND.

Flower Culture. The Isles of Scilly are just now commanding a good deal of attention, on account ef the wonderful flower trade which they have developed. The whole cultivated portions of the islands are devoted to tho growing of flowers. The island is in miniature one great patch of blossom, and when in the golden sunshine the air is heavy with the fragrant odour of flowers. Flowers are the bread and meat of the Scillonians, so there is small wonder that the word * business is writ large over the great flower farms of the island. Years ago the Scillonians grew potatoes aud vegetables and built snips. Both these industries went by the board owing to a variety of causes, and then Mr Augustus Smith, the late lord proprietor, started the idea of growing flowers for market purposes. To-day the little Lady of the Isles will carry away from the island as much as fifteen tons of cut flowers on a single voyage, and one grower on the island has shipped at one time as many as 500,000 spikes of narcissi. As these flowers all grow in the open, you can imagine what a wonderful sight greets the eye of the traveller landing in Scilly for the first time. Scilly is a kingdom. It is popularly supposed to be attached to the Duchy of Cornwall, but it is under the benevolent rule of King Smith. King Smith, the lord-proprietor, is monarch of all he surveys. Every inch of every island is his, and his .word is law. You have not been in Scilly five minutes before you are struck with the remarkable purity of the English spoken. There is no dialect, no provincialism: every word i 3 clearly enunciated, every sentence is perfectly constructed. And a Scillonian, no matter what his position, can talk with you on any subject. They are politicians, moralists, philosophers, and practical men of business as well. The Scillonians are nearly all Wesleyans, though a few are Freethinkers. They are nearly all teetotallers, and drunkenness is almostunknown among them. There is only one policeman for all the islands, and he goes fishing or gardening all the week, and only puts his uniform on on Satnrday night. There is one island, containing over 200 inhabitants, in which there are only two men who are not total abstainers, and only one man who smokes.— ‘ Dagonet ’ in * Referee. ’