FOREWORD

‘ z 2%? :Ey interest in Boughton Island began when our mother took us there with her to pick

raspberries. This was about 1936 and the berry pickers were my mother, my aunt Annie and my older brother and sister. I’m afraid the younger members spend more time swimming than berry picking. I suppose it was our father who arranged the trip. It involved getting Jim Hayter to ferry us over and take us back. Jim Hayter was a fixture on Launching Bay for years. Originally from High Bank, he spent summers in a shanty and later built a small house there. He was a very kindly man who was an expert on all things shore-wise. Donald King wrote a poem about him and this is included in Donald’s Memories of Boughton Island which forms part of this volume.

Our father was good at arranging things. It was about twenty years later that he arranged a duck-hunting expedition to Boughton Island. It resulted in an unplanned overnight stay with his two companions. My brother-in-law, Billy Christian was one of the marooned hunters. The Reverend John Paine was the other man. In his spare time he wrote a weekly column in the Guardian. The hunting trip gave him two stories. They are included in this book.

My first wife, Mary Christian, had Boughton Island in view daily from their waterfront farm. From their land a person could step into a dory and row the mile- long Launching Bay to Boughton Island. Because of that, there was always a strong connection to the people of the Island. From our cottage in De Gros Marsh we often sailed over to Boughton Island to the great beach on the South side. Nobody lived there by then.

_ _ Mary Christian with oarsfrom brother Mary’s brother, William , had a William’s dory on Launching beach.