ISLAND OF ISOLATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 19

ISLAND OF ISOLATION

SOMES ISLAND, in Wellington Harbour, must be one of the most familiar sights to travellers in New Zealand: Every day it is seen by hundreds of people who’ pass up and down the harbour on théir way from and to the Mainland. Travellers from overseas know. it, too. Yet there are still many who don’t know its story arid couldn’t tell you why it remains so much an island of isolation. Not long ago the NZBS Rural: Talks Officer, James C. Taylor, spent a day on the island with a tape recotder, and the programme he

put together when he came back is now being heard from National stations. Permission for Mr. Taylor to visit the island had first to be sought from J. E. McElwaine, Director of the -Animal Industry Division of the Department of ‘Agriculture, for Somes Island is a quarantine station, and Mr. McElwaine is responsible for enforcing our quarantine regulations. Island of Isolation starts with a brief call on Mr. McEIlwaine, but presently the launch which is the island’s only link with Wellington casts off and the journey has begun. The trip to Somes Island from the Wellington wharves takes 40 minutes, and on the way Mr. Taylor has time to give a word picture of the island, almost ringed with cliffs, with its bays and inlets, and its cover of pasture and bush. On the launch he talks with Mr. Weir, the caretaker, and, once ashore, with Mrs. Weir. They have been on the island for 20 years. Somes Island is three-fifths of a mile long and, at its widest point, one-third of a mile across-roughly pear-shaped, with its broad base facing towards Wellington Heads. Besides giving a full account of the quarantine work done there, Mr. Taylor takes his recorder to the high points to describe for listeners the lie of the lander The island has about 10 acres reserved for quarantine ani-_ mals. It runs a.few milking cows for the needs of the homestead, and about 100 sheep keep down the grass on the. cliffs. These sheep, as George Wickenden, a sheep and wool instructor, ex-_| plains in the programme, are used also for trying out wool brands. Though yachtsmen and holidaymakers would like to have the right to land on Somes Island, it cannot be a picnic or pleasure resort and a quarantine station too-a point which Mr. Weir makes in the programme. Every animal brought into the country is a potential menace, and many diseases that could inflict incalculable loss are being kept out of New Zealand through an ever-vigilant quarantine service-of which Somes Island is a vital part. Island of Isolation, which -has already been heard from 2YA, will be broadcast by 2ZA at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, May 2, and from 2XN at 8.0 p.m. on May 6. It will be heard later in ‘farm sessions from other stations,