"THE ISLAND STATE"

    "The boast of Rockleigh's residents that this tiny Borough is about the same as it was a quarter-century ago, plus their forceful statement of willingness to remain so for time without end, is strangely incongruous. No more than two dozen houses have been built alone the town's three streets in these 25 years, evidence of outlander's hesitation to invade the jealous solidarity of the Rockleigh family.

    "There is, of course, nothing to censure in the Borough's refusal to admire and yield to the bulldozer. Eyeing suspiciously and fearfully the advance of real-estate developers on three of its borders, it has the sympathy even of the boom's beneficiaries, the persons destined to be sheltered in modern cliff dwellings or in soot-stained housed on 50- by 100-foot lots. Society envies the solitude of the hermit.

    "It will be interesting in the next few years of spectacular growth in the Metropolitan Area to watch Rockleigh's defenders at their barricades, only a few miles from the world's greatest city. We're all for pastoral peace; we just want to see if anybody can get away with it."