Island Spell

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 301, 29 March 1945, Page 9

Island Spell

i] ENJOYED that excellent BBC pro‘duction about Tristan da Cunha. Here is a small spot of land dominated

by a great mountairf peak, in the lonéliest part of the South Atlantic, where ships seldom call, ‘and the natural infertility of the soil makes it ne¢essary to eke out the’ natural resources of the island by gifts and supplies from wellwishers on the mainland of Africa, or the United Kingdom, The community, founded by sailors of Nelson’s day, still weer clothes of a fashion some fifty years outmoded. The inhabitants have intermarried, so that there are only eight surnames on the island. There is also a fabulous treasure buried on Tristan, in a place which is known to the people who live there, but they just haven’t bothered to dig for it, for, as an old woman said to the missionary’s wife

who tells the tale, "What use would gold be to us here on Tristan?" None of the people, even in the leanest years, would ever leave the island for more fertile, populous regions. One can imagine the lure, if this were a balmy Pacific isle, but, judging by the descrip. tion given by Mrs. Rogers, Tristan de Cunha affords but a bare means of subsistence and a,life of hard work, However, there is something to be said for a life which brings such peace of mind as expressed by an old woman of the island who said to Mrs. Rogers, as the latter embarked for England, "Thafik the Queen for the blanket she sent me, and ask her if I may have a small cooking pot."