Tropicalities

CONSIDERING the numbers of natives and white residents who are occu pied on plantations, accidents from falling nuts and leaves are rare. Mr. C.

R. Bignell, of Fulakora, B.S.I., had a narrow escape recently. He was walk ing home from the store, carrying a can of sugar and a fresh egg when he heard the “click” of a leaf breaking above him. He jumped aside but the falling leaf caught him across the shoulders.

He was brought back to consciousness by his Alsatian dog licking his face and whining, to find that the sugar was un spilled and the egg unbroken. With abrasions and a stiff back, he got off lightly, as a falling leaf hits with con siderable force and he thought he had been hit with a sledge hammer.

With the fall in copra and the leaf fall, coconuts are not popular at Fula kora.

ALTHOUGH Les Holden is dead —the result of an accident in New South Wales in October —Holden’s Aerial Transport Co. still has the old ’plane “Canberra” in service on the Morobe field, in New Guinea. The old machine is being fitted with a new engine, the old one having been removed after four years’ hard service. The Company has recently imported a new de Havilland 50, which has a capacity of 1,500 lbs.

A REPRESENTATIVE of The Pacific Islands Monthly, learning of the pre sence in Sydney of Mr. L. Joubert, a New Guinea mining man, went along to interview him about certain develop ments on the Gira River, in which he is interested. Mr. Joubert looked vague, then laughed. “You’ve got the right story but the wrong Joubert,” he said.

There are two mining men in the Ter ritory with the same uncommon name and the same initial. One is A. L. (Les) Joubert, who has been prospect ing in Papua and New Guinea for years and the other is L. J. (Louis) Joubert, assistant manager of Bulolo Gold Dredg ing Limited. The Bulolo Joubert left Sydney on the “Macdhui” for New Guinea on December 22, after a holiday in the United States. While he was in Sydney, an old-timer from the Papuan goldfields, looked him up expecting to see his long-lost pal, Les. * * * A VISITOR to T.I. tells of a pearl shell “rush” in Birmingham many years ago. Large quantities of pearl art icles were manufactured in that city at the time, but very wasteful methods were in use, the best part of the shell being picked out and the remainder put out to fill up an old quarry on the out skirts of the town. Gradually a large deposit of M.O.P. was built up and covered with rubbish.

In the early ’seventies, an acute short age of the shell occurred and the price soared. An immediate rush by all the unemployed and riff-raff of the Midland city was made to the quarry and, after removing tons of old tins and other garbage, a large quantity of valuable shell was retrieved. * * * THE value of pearls is often enhanced by removing the successive coats of nacre covering the gem, but there is a risk in doing so, as the existing top coat may prove to be the best. Three years ago, a Japanese diver was re

warded by a valuable pearl won from the famous “1929 pearling ground,” the ground in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the discovery of which caused so much ex citement on Thursday Island.

The lucky owner put it up for sale and refused £2,000. He then set to work to “skin” it, in the hope of im proving its value. One coat after another was removed and the value steadily de creased; yet the diver persisted, hoping for a bigger offer. The pearl was whittled down till it eventually fetched only £5.

The two English proverbs—one about a bird in the hand, and the other about a substance and a shadow —are, appar ently unknown to the Japanese. * * * THE ancient idea that there is ever lasting war between Missionary and trader persists in some quarters; but is not highly regarded by those who know the Pacific. Take, for instance, Milne Bay, Eastern Papua. On the one hand we have Mr. Henry Dexter, “hard boiled” trader. He was knocking about, the Pacific 20 years ago; saw hard ser vice in British destroyers; planted rub ber in Malaya for eight years; and has been running a store on the Papuan coast since 1924. On the other hand, we have several missionary organisations, all keenly at work among the Eastern Papuans. And between Trader Dexter and Missionaries Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, etc. —there is warm friendship and mutual esteem.

The Missionaries do much of their trad ing through Dexter’s store; and Trader Dexter, in a private letter which has come to our hand, says some nice things about all denominations. “The Rev.

Rich,” he writes, “is a tonic in himself — a jolly fine chap.” We hope Mr. Dexter will forgive us for publishing this: but it comes so opportunely to support our belief that, by and large, the relation ship between mission and trade-store is generally friendly. If it is not, then either the trader or the missionary is a fool. * * * MR. C. S. SHARP, a principal of the Government Training College for na tive and Indian teachers in Fiji, told “The Sydney Morning Herald” of the changes that had come over the younger generations of Fijians, who realised that there was no future for their race unless they competed with the Indians as agriculturists.

When the indenture system under which Indian labour was brought to Fiji, was abolished, the Colonial Sugar Re fining Co., Ltd., leased its land to Indian farmers and bought their crop, said Mr.

Sharp. Where before there had been a floating population of Indians, who re turned to their native land after seven years’ service, there was now a firmly established peasant class. The Indian and Fijian populations were about equal, and as a result of the Government’s child welfare work among the Fijians the rate of increase was also nearly equal. It was fairly obvious to young Fijians that they were in danger of losing the lands which their forefathers had owned. A Fijian farming settlement had been established on the north-western coast of Viti Levu, and the experiment was being watched with interest.

Mr. G. F. Grahame, Mayor of Suva, also commented on this development.

The Fijians were at a disadvantage, he said, because of the old tribal customs, which were a form of practical Com munism. The Fijian settlement would be just reaping a crop, when a nearby village descended upon the growers, and it had to be shared.