CHATHAM ISLANDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8512, 17 August 1907, Page 7

CHATHAM ISLANDS.

• t (From a Correspondent.) TE ONE, August 10. iNotmuch news to relate this time. Though it is the time of the twoanonthly trips, news does not seem to accumulate. Everybody stays at home in the wintertime; it is too rough overhead and under foot as a rule. However, the winter so far has not been very bad. On June 27th we .had a .terrible gale, the sort of blow that makes a sailing ship heave to till it is.aver. It began from the north-west, and so continued for •twelve hours. It then changed to .south-west, and blew rather harder. Trees were uprooted in various places .and the children's shelter-shed at the Te One School was blown over, and ■smashed. It continued ve~ry boisterous .and cold.ftT some fourteen days, .since which it has been improving slow.lv. At time of writing there has been "no rain to speak of for fully a fortnight. Tanks are running low, ■which is a strange thing for this time of the year. The steamer has had a lovely week to load and unload her cargo of potatoes. She leaves for New Zealand to-morrow. On .Sunday. July 28th, a surprise was m store for jis. The "Nora Niven" steam trawler from Napier turned up at Waitangi, and best of all, she carried a mail. Everybody pushed to the post office, eager to learn what had been ageing on in New Zealand for the last tw.e months. The -"Nora Niven" came down to see what the fisheries here were like, and »s far as we .can learn, she is quite satisfied. SJbe was here eight or ten days, and took back a gsod cargo. There are myriads of fish all round the&e coasts. It seems a pity that we are so far a-sray from New Zealand. Though, after ali, 50:6 miles is nothing, in these days of turbine steamers' etc. All sorts of rumours are afloat as to what will be the outcome of the trawler's visit. But a community like this lives on rumour. It is amusing to lister, to the different yarns and compare notes. You see, where there is n« news, people must invent some, to prevent utter stagnation. In a small place like this there is really no very great necessity for elaborate public buildings, and no one would accuse us of ostentaticn in that line. The Public School at Te One is a very fine building, but the other Government buildings are a disgrace to any place. The Post Office, Magistrate's office and Cou: t-

house are all in one, and a very small "one." When a "case" is on the "beak," there is only room for his worship and about two others. Everybody has to stay outside and peep through the windows or the door, and try and get an inkling of what is going on by stretching their neckt and ears that way. It is time a decent building or buildings were put up. The gaol, which stands behind this "palace of varieties" is certainly very substantial, if not ornamental. It is seldom used, however. There is no policeman or warder to look after prisoners, and see that they are fed. I believe the usual routine is to convey the prisoner, vt meal times, to the neighbouring hotel to refresh himself, and then lock him up again. This answered fairly well until, some time back, a number of natives were run in for refusing to pay the dog tax. They were duly escorted to the "pub" to get their meals, and duly put back behind the stone walls. After keeping them there till they were so fat they could hardly waddle backwards and forwards, word came from headquarters to set them at liberty. Nobody was so sorry to hear it as the prisoners. There's one thing wanting here for certain, and that is good firewood. There s°ems to be plenty of wood of a sort, but it" has no heat compared with the common sorts of New Zealand. One could do with a few good cords of matai, or better still, maire. It might warm the place up a nit during these cold, damp nights. When it is cold here it is cold, and a different cold altogether to that you get at Masterton. It penetrates the bones, and do what you will you cannot keep it out of the house. During a spell of wet weather, everything drips with water, inside as well as out. Matches, even alongside the fireplace, are sometimes too damp to strike; and boots, lying under your bed, get covered with blue mould. That sort of thing does not last for long, otherwise everything would begin to rot; but these damp spells have this winter been conspicuous by their abse: ce. This letter is short, but it cannot be otherwise. Perhaps when two months more have passed there may be some thrilling incidents to relate —let us hope for the best.