Tropicalities

WORK at Lord Howe Island goes hand-in-glove with ease, says a correspondent. Saturday is the Ad ventists’ Sabbath, and Sunday is ob served by the Church of England, so two days of the week are lost. On Monday, everyone has the “tired feeling,” even at Lord Howe Island. On Tuesday morn ing little work is done, but much talk of the game of bowls to be played on Wednesday. Wednesday morning is oc cupied by preparations for the afternoon game of bowls. Thursday is full of dis cussions on Wednesday’s game, so these modern lotus-eaters do but little work during that day. Friday morning is spent in arranging for the cricket match that is always played in the afternoon. Sat urday again finds the Adventists at Divine worship. * * * Margaret Bignell, who lives in the Solomons, and who has occa sionally written interesting things for the P.I.M., describes an unusual ex perience:— “I saw a very interesting sight the other day down at our river mouth. It was a crocodile stalking cattle. At first sight, I could only see its two eyes for ward, sticking out of the water. Then he appeared a little nearer to the bank and started to creep slowly in until he was about two yards away from where the cows and calves were standing. He then showed all of his body and tail; and, just as he was about to make the last dash, the cows kicked up their heels and galloped away, and the crocodile sank. I saw no more of him. I suppose he was about 12 feet long. I was stand ing perfectly still, behind the coconut palms, while all this was going on, and you have no idea how excited I was.”

Wonder how many Sydney young girls would remain “perfectly still” and merely “excited,” while one of these cruel reptiles was slowly creeping out of the water! * * * APOLOGIES to Miss Gwen Evans, of Buka Passage, New Guinea. Miss Evans wrote for this journal an in teresting description of Buka Island; and, referring to a certain plantation, she used the word “long”. A combina tion of Evans caligraphy, editorial stu pidity and typographical ingenuity turned the word into “kong”, which is Pidgin for “Chinaman”. Now Miss Evans is being menaced by an irate plantation manager, who wants the world to know that he is no Chinaman. The explana tion is hastily made. * * * THE following interesting little table, showing the exports and imports of Norfolk Island in May, 1933 and 1932, disclose the commercial effect of the alteration in the Morinda’s time-table.

Last year the Morinda maintained regu lar communication between Auckland and N.I. This year, there is no New Zealand connection: Imports.

Month. From Aust. From N.Z.

May, 1932 £2260 . . £1024 May, 1933 £2483 ..

Exports.

Month. To Aust. To N.Z.

May, 1932 £1218 .. £86 May, 1933 £2443 . .

THIS sad story is told racily by our Norfolk Island correspondent:—The rain poured down; the night was black; but nothing daunted our local society, and every muddy road led to the Golf Club cabaret in Rawson Hall.

One car, broken down at the foot of Longridge Hill, was taken in tow by another, the driver of which, glancing round from time to time as he laboured up the hill, saw that all was well and that the headlights of the derelict still gleamed behind.

At the top of the long, weary hill he stopped to cast off and, with a derisive roar, an entirely alien car, under its own power, leapt past and disappeared into the night. The towrope had parted as soon as the first strain was put on it, and the cripple was still stationary at the foot of the hill, pleading with mournful honk and toot for assistance from the upward-rushing cars. * * * THERE has been much recently in the Australian newspapers about New Guinea and Papua, culled from the annual reports of the New Guinea and Papuan administrators. This material is of little value in disclosing the present condition of the two Territories, as the reports referred to, which have just been tabled in the Federal Parliament, deal with the period ended June 30, 1932.

Very much has occurred in the ensu ing twelve months in relation to eco nomic affairs, and the average man would prefer to know the conditions in the Territories on June 30, 1933. It is a great pity that the Government machinery works with such exasperating slowness. There seems to be no reason why important information should not be given to the public within three months of the end of the financial year.

Instead, the public has to wait twelve months while information is being gathered, submitted and printed in a most leisurely fashion. It is not the fault of the Administrators concerned —their reports are generally in Canberra fairly soon after the end of the financial year.

It is after that that they accumulate dust and cobwebs.