Tahiti Notes.

New Book on “The Bounty.”

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Papeete, Nov. 28.

MR. ALISTER MacDONALD, our cele brated local artist, returned re cently from a tour of the Mar quesas Islands and the Tuamotos, on the schooner “Moana.” Many exquisite examples of MacDonald’s water colours are to be seen in Tahiti residences, but as the present trip was undertaken ex pressly for “L'Illustration” (Paris), we shall have to wait events before any comments may be made on his latest work.

Mr. James Norman Hall, the novelist, was also a passenger on the “Moana,” having spent several weeks in the Mar quesas in search of new impressions.

Mr. Hall and his collaborator, Mr.

Chas. Nordhoff, are to be congratulated upon the outstanding success attending the publication of their latest book, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which has been chosen by the American “Book of the Month Club,” this alone ensuring a large circulation. Many books have been printed about the Bounty episode, but no one is so well qualified to write the story as the two authors of the latest book, steeped as they are in knowledge of the islands which is only to be ac quired by long years of residence; and they have spared neither trouble nor expense in order faithfully to reproduce at atmosphere of those eighteenth cen tury days. Many descendants of the Bounty mutineers live in and around Papeete.

Messrs. Hall and Nordhoff’s new book, by the way, has been fittingly dedicated to two old timers in the Cook Islands, Andy Thomson and Viggo Rasmussen, Island skippers sailing out of Rarotonga.

The Motor Business.

Mr. David Stuart, who owns the only four-storey building in Tahiti, returned from San Francisco last month with a fleet of Plymouth cars, and promptly hired part of the old P.C.P.C. building as a garage. Tahiti is now extremely well supplied with public vehicles. We already have a Ford garage, a Citroen garage, and several others which do not specialise on any particular brand of car; it is also stated that we are soon to have a Renault garage, in addition to all these. Probably there is no place in the world where car fares are cut to such a low figure as in Tahiti, where the minimum rate is five francs and the charge for long journeys as little as one franc per kilometre for a five-passenger car. ’Bus fares are also exceedingly low and on these one may travel to the end of the trail, over 50 miles from Papeete, for a matter of 10 francs.

The White Egret.

A serious effort is being made, by the Syndicate D'Initiative de Tahiti, to in troduce into these islands the white cattle egret, whose natural habitat is in Borneo and other parts of the East Indies. Great satisfaction (without any of the usual evils) appears to have fol lowed the introduction of this beautiful bird into other parts of the world. In Tahiti, where bird life is remarkably scarce, apart from sea birds, of course, it is considered that besides its aesthetic value this egret may act as an efficient check on the cattle tick, which is be coming somewhat of a menace in cer tain districts. It is hoped that the “Syn dicate” will be successful in this under

taking, and that the birds will be pro tected by suitable legislation, in order to check for a time the enthusiasm of local nimrods.