Rhinoceros Beetle

The Keppel Island Outbreak How Individual Effort Saved Tonga

(From Our Tonga Correspondent) IT was in the early months of 1922...

Keppel’s Island, or Niuatobutabu, at the northern tail of our scattered archipelago and on tne map aoout 170 miles from Samoa, had always enjoyed, along with its neighbour huuafoou, a fairly peaceful existence. Both islands are situated far from the seat of Gov ernment, and laws, ordinances, regu lations and suchlike had been very often repealed by the time the wander ing cutter with the Government mails had arrived at that distant end of the group.

In fact, there were so many compli cations that the Government at length decided not to worry them very much with “red tape” so long as the inhabit ants paid their head taxes each year into the treasury. It follows then, that they were a happier people than their brethren nearer the seat of Govern ment, where the taxpayer had to stand up to all the requirements of the Gov ernment Gazette; requirements that always do seem to emanate from every country that has a Government.

It is true that belated reports from Niuafoou would come to hand every now and again about some fresh erup tion, but as far as Keppel’s Island was concerned (not being susceptible to eruptions) it couldn’t draw any atten tion whatsoever.

Until the early months of 1922 A visitor there at the beginning of that year found that the small boys had evolved a new game. They would catch some big-horned beetles that had apparently just taken up their abode on the island and, by tying a weighted length of cotton around the body of each scarab, see which beetle could lift the biggest load when freed from the hand.

It was a great game! The boy who owned the strongest beetle won the piece of sugar cane.

The stranger didn’t enter into the spirit of the game at all, but, being of a curious turn of mind, he managed to seize a couple of these beetles, and, after knocking them on the head, brought the remains to Nukualofa.

The Dreaded Rhinoceros.

And then, as far as sleepy Tonga was concerned, Keppel’s Island was well and truly on the mao. Like wild fire, the “beach” knew that the Ton gan group was assailed by the dreaded rhinoceros beetle—the deadliest enemy known to the copra producer.

Luckily, the Government, galvanised

into action, discovered a man who, whilst in Samoa, had made a diligent study of this particular pest. A thoughtful and energetic man who had ideas, and ideas which he would like to test. . . .

Mr. M. Muller was packed off to Keppel’s Island with instructions to eliminate the beetle. His salary was fixed at £400 per annum. The Gov ernment was again lucky in that Mr, Muller wanted to test out some ideas, otherwise he might have demanded a thousand a year, and, in the light of results, he was worth every penny of the latter sum.

Mr. Muller Commences His

Tests.

Mr. Muller’s first step was to isolate the island. Then, by a series of trials, he verified one of his ideas, namely, that the beetle could not fly further than a given distance without a rest (this exploded the prevalent supposi tion that the original female beetle had flown from Samoa—in fact, it has been pretty conclusively proven now that the beetle was deliberately liberated there by a person with an in growing grudge against the inhabi tants).

Then Mr. Muller got legislation through whereby he could call on every able-bodied man on the island to “clean up” two days in the week.

A tall order this! The island con sists of some 3,000 acres, and probably some 2,000 acres was in virgin state with centuries of rotting logs and de cayed vegetation. But Mr. Muller said it had to be done, because old logs and decayed vegetation were the only kind of things the beetle liked to live in after gorging himself on the heart of the cocoanut tree.

Success After Seven Years.

Well, it has taken Mr. Muller seven years. . . .

To write of his experiments; his disappointments; his discoveries; his appeals to a misunderstanding native Government; his despondency when native magistrates and native chiefs definitely worked against him, and his own night-thoughts that he might fail in his undertaking would fill a vol ume. . . . ’Tis sufficient to record that Mr.

Muller successfully segregated the beetle and that he trapped the last known parasite twenty months ago, since when neither beetle nor lavae has been seen or discovered on the island. Mr. Muller has eliminated the scourge.

For his services to the country Mr.

Muller has been placed on the per manent staff of the Civil Service, but it is doubtful if the Tongan native will ever sufficiently realise what this white man with certain ideas and a fixed purpose has achieved, and what the achievement has meant to the King dom’s future.