Tropicalities

THLRSDAY ISLAND officials receive some weird letters occasionally. The following specimen was addressed to a certain department which has charge of natives’ money, and from which sup plies are drawn as required. The lib eral allowance of the word “please” in the letter is typical of the local Is lander, who is never more polite than when he is trying to get something out of the white man: “Please, Mr.—, I wanting some money, please. Please, my father and mother got no tucker or blankets and I want to buy some for them. Please, Mr.—, wives and children are easy got, but fathers and mothers—NO. . . .” * * * STRANGE how the name of Lang can act like a tonic, in some circum stances! Taxpayers in the Solomons, for instance, used considerable ink and some strong adjectives not long ago in presenting their wretched plight—much money to pay out, a sheltered public service to support, a policy of laissez faire to combat, and so on. Then it was suggested that the Solomons mignt be removed from the British Colonial Office control, and handed over to Aus tralia, to be administered along with New Guinea and Papua. Immediately, what a panic and scurry! “What!” cried the Solomon Islanders. “Be taken away from the kindly beneficent rule of Britain and handed over to that coun try of lunatic demagogues and bush rangers! Never! Why, if that man Lang hears that we’ve got £60,000 or £70,000 saved up against a rainy day— the result of our good government— nothing will save our Treasury from his minions. Let Australian learn to govern herself, before trying to govern us!” And appreciative and even affec tionate things are said about the Resi dent Commissioner, Mr. Ashley, whose term of office is drawing to an end.

All of which only goes to show how necessary it is to keep the Australian Islands administration clear of party politics, in every shape and form. * * * AS an example of the kind of nonsense that is published about the Pacific Islands, we reproduce the following paragraph. It was written by a recent visitor to Nauru, published in an Aus tralian journal, and re-published in the Mid-Pacific Magazine (Honolulu). Mem bers of the Stanley Expedition, par ticularly, will be interested in the ref erence to Rennel Island; while planters on Malaita will raise a loud cheer; A few days after passing Wreck Reef we came in sight of the Solomons, the first island we sighted being Rennel Island. It is densely wooded and very thickly populated. No white men have visited it since 1897, and the in habitants still practice cannibalism. Next morning we passed between two of the largest islands, San Christoval and Malaita. We saw some of the natives on Malaita, but when our ship’s siren was sounded, they turned and quickly bolted into the bush, evidently fright ened by the sound. It seems strange to us that though these islands were discovered 400 years ago, cannibalism and head-hunting still go on, but so it is.

THIS scribe entered, a city tea-room, and noted a table occupied by W.

R. Carpenter, J. A. Carpenter and A.

E. Barton. The latter, in his serious moments, is a well-known accountant.

“W.R.” gave a “view-halloa.” “Come here, Mr. Pacific Monthly,” he cried.

“Come and hear Barton’s new method of preventing malaria.”

I was all attention, immediately; and “J.A.” pricked up his ears.

“What’s this, Barton?” he demanded.

“Another new drug?”

“No,” said the solemn Mr. Barton.

“This is simple. When you are in danger of malaria, you get some grease —dripping or butter will do—and you smear it evenly over the exposed parts of your face and hands.”

“Sounds pretty messy,” remarked “J.A.” “What’s the idea, anyway?”

“Well, you see, the old lady mosquito comes along, and tries to dig in her beak, but her legs slip from under her, and she can’t get home any way. And so you don’t get malaria. See?”

“J.A.” eyes the criminal severely.

“Some day, Barton, you will die in a nasty way,” he said. “And it won’t be from malaria!”

“W.R.’s” shout of laughter was heard in O’Connell Street, and they hurried in to put out the fire. * * * THE shipping companies of other na tions continue to display a keen in terest in the Pacific carrying trade —one result of the depression, which has sent the transport organisations of every country on the hunt for anything which will earn bread and butter. The Americans are now catering vigorously for Fiji and Auckland; the French are already calling at Suva on their run from Tahiti to Noumea, and are now suggesting that they may call at Apia also; the Germans continue to run their cargo steamer, the “Bremer haven,” from China down to New Guinea; and the Dutch recently insti tuted a new service, by which their vessel from the East Indies, via Papuan and New Guinea ports, calls at New Hebrides and New Caledonia before proceeding to Sydney. * * * WE hear, almost daily, of the regis tration of new companies to exploit some alleged source of great wealth in the Islands. We have referred, in this and previous issues, to a number of them; but still they come. The lat est is Pacific-gold and Platinum, Ltd., with a nominal capital of £5,000, “to equip and despatch an expedition to in vestigate gold-bearing country in the British Solomon Islands.” The directors named are D. Wentworth, F. E. Wade and G. E. Bray; and the company re ceived a good deal of publicity because it was one of several companies re cently registered in Canberra —a sys tem now being followed to avoid the murderously heavy taxation in the various States.

AN example of New Guinea ingenuity was noted on a little canvas bag, containing 55 ounces of raw gold, received by Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., from the Morobe field the other day. The sender wanted to seal the package, but he had no seal—only wax. So he melted the wax into the tin-top of a beer-bottle, passed the string which bound the bag through the tin-top and the wax, and impressed upon it what appears to have been the triangular device on the top of a cer tain brand of tooth-paste. It looked most impressive—and it certainly served its purpose. * * * * WHALE Oil from the Antarctic is still an enormously disturbing factor in the world’s copra market. Pro duction has been reduced; but over production was so marked in 1930 and 1931 that huge stocks were accumu lated —much of which are still in exist ence—and the rate of production is still far greater than circumstances war rant. It is certain that, as the years pass, the Antarctic will be depleted of whales—just as all other oceans have been depleted—but that is poor con solation to the man who is trying to make his plantation pay in this present year of grace. The following is from a recent issue of the London “Times”: “The Whaling Companies’ Association, excluding Unilever, Laboremus, Ltd. (says the Oslo correspondent of The Times), has reached an agreement lim iting the coming season’s whale-oil pro duction to about 50 per cent, of the present capacity of the world whaling fleets. The total is expected to reach 2,000,000 barrels.”