Cook Islands News.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Rarotonga, Dec. 5.

THE schooner “Tagua” left for the inner group on November 12.

Justice Ayson, Resident Commissioner, who is visiting the group before the hurricane season, was a passenger.

Among the passengers who returned by the schooner were Mr. J. McGruther, Resident Agent at Mangaia, and Mrs.

McGruther, who are en route to New Zealand on furlough. The “Tagua” connected with the “Makura,” which left Rarotonga on December 5.

Also leaving by the “Makura” is Mr.

W. Calwell, Chief of Police, who has completed his term of office in the Cook Group.

Santa Claus Causes Terror.

Picnic parties have been arranged for the children following the breaking up of the schools for the summer.

The Director of Education, Mr. W.

McKenzie, arranged for the school children, the staging of the arrival of Father Christmas at the school grounds, where he distributed to each pupil a toy from a large tree.

So realistic was the figure of Santa Claus emerging from the plantation of trees near the school that several of the children broke the ranks and ran terror-stricken from the scene.

Moving pictures of native children at drill and performing some of their dances were taken.

Funds Temporarily Depleted.

Races and carnivals in New Zealand, combined with the Christmas trade, usually result in better prices being paid for fruit at local packing sheds.

Early in the month, traders financed the purchase of fruit, and funds avail able among the European section of the community began to disappear, first from the traders, then the stores, and finally, the Administrative offices.

As there is no commercial bank in Rarotonga, the only solution was for money transfers to be effected by means of I.O.U’s. until the position can be re lieved by the arrival of funds from New Zealand with the mail steamer,

“White Man, Brown Woman.”

“Exaggerated and shameless,” sums up the criticism passed here on the recently published book on Polynesia by Tom Richards and T. Stuart Gurr. Tom Richards poses as the central char acter in fantastic events, the majority of which are not his own experiences, but the yarns and experiences of other men. Inaccuracies are numerous, and there are ungenerous reflections on in dividuals whose hospitality the author accepted. Several of them have grounds for resentment against Richards for the publication of per sonal references.

But the author does well to warn the uninitiated against the kind of life he claims to have led in these islands.

One case does not establish proof of deplorable conduct of all white men in Polynesia. Many white men are mar ried to brown women, and strive for the welfare of their families.

It is feared that the book will cause many readers to regard the Pacific Islands as a sort of Elysium for loose living. Tom Richards’ book does not tell a true story of life in Polynesia.