Vanua Lava.

Should Be Great Holiday Resort.

THE oversea steamer companies send their big liners on excursion cruises to quite uninteresting places, and yet there is available to them a sheltered harbour like Port Patteson, well within cruising range of Sydney,” said Mr. D. S. Askew, who returned to Australia recently after spending several months investigating sulphur deposits on Yanua Lava, Banks Group, New Hebrides.

Mr. Askew explained that Port Pat teson is a large, well-charted harbour on the large island of Vanua Lava; and, within handy reach of it, there are abundant attractions for tourists. The harbour itself is very beautiful; there is a large native population, practically unspoiled by contact with Europeans: there are plenty of suphur baths and thermal springs—making quite a fas-

cinating “wonderland”; and, within a few miles radius, there are some small, delightful islands, particularly Motu Lava, Mota and Pakea. The great sulphur deposits in themselves are worth a visit.

Vanua Lava is about 15 miles long by 12 miles across. It is well-wooded and well-watered. The natives are mostly Melanesians, but there is a strong admixture of Micronesians.

They still keep up all their native customs. “Given a means of communication, I think that Vanua Lava, being a thermal wonderland set in a beautiful tropic island, with a fine harbour,

should become one of the great holiday resorts of the Pacific,” said Mr. Askew, Northwards of Vanua Lava, said Mr.

Askew, there is another island, Ure parapara, also noted for a safe harbour.

This harbour is one of the best in the Pacific, completely sheltered, and capable of holding a very large fleet of the largest ships. It was at Ure parapara that mysterious Japanese were recently reported—they hung about the island for a week, and stole a number of pigs from the natives. It is believed, thereabouts, that the Japanese are anxious to get possession of this harbour and that, not so many years ago, they offered to buy Ure parapara from the Condominium authorities.

There has been a Japanese settle ment for many years on Lakuna, another island in this Group. On the top of Lakuna, there is a lake of fresh water, 8 miles long by 5 miles across, of phenomenal depth—an American scientific expedition failed to find bottom.

It is an interesting, little-known region, and comparatively close to the Queensland coast.

The largest group of Europeans seen in the Banks Group for many years. Photograph taken on Vanua Lava. Left to right: Mrs. Askew, Mr. D. S. Askew, Miss C. Whitford, the late Mr. R. B. Morris (see reference to his death in this issue), Mr. A. Dawson, Mr. W. P. Whit ford, and Mr. Askew’s two children.