Tropicalities

AN extraordinary occurrence is reported from Fiji. The military funeral of a young Fijian soldier was interrupted when three bullocks, alarmed by the firing of volleys over the grave, broke out of an adjacent slaughter yard and charged the party. A native saw the animals, and yelled an alarm. Confusion ensued. The mourners rushed for safety. One Fijian had a nar row escape, the horn of a bullock piercing his sulu and ripping it from his waist.

The loss of his sulu made the Fijian’s departure even more hurried.

NOTE from a Norfolk Island resident about “Uncle” Cornish Quintal, who died on February 10: Born on Pitcairn Island in 1841, he came to Norfolk as a barefooted boy of fifteen, in 1856, and spent the greater part of his long life here.

Extraordinarily handsome, of the hawklike profile that oddly persists among the descendants of the Bounty Mutineers and their Tahitian wives, powerful, resolute and capable, Cornelius Quintal played an outstanding part in the life of this island, among both his own people and the over sea settlers as they came in; and his courtesy and charm of manner endeared him to all who met him. Only two Pit cairners remain now—Mrs. Seymour Buf fett and Mr. Parkyn Christian —and when they, too, are gone, the Island will have lost a link with the romantic days of old, that will never come again.

"CAVENDISH” contributes a few words about a common complaint and home ly remedies: “Recently suspecting the onset of a boil, I bandaged the aching limb and, giving the hoe a rest, I went for a walk (Norfolk Island holds many pleasant walks: Fernie Lane and Palm Glen, Buck’s Point Road, would be hard to beat), meeting Islanders and Mainlanders. All showed real old time sincerity in expressing sympathy for my sore arm and liberally proffered the best medical advice.

“The world of to-day may have become a hard soulless proposition, but Norfolk Island obviously has not kept pace in that respect. Here are a few Norfolk remedies for boils. Readers in other Islands may find them applicable: “Shot seems to be most favoured, taken internally; number doubtful. Also: poul tice with linseed or fat bacon; castor oil on flannel; soak with iodine; sulphur and treacle. A mainlander thought a change of climate would be the thing, but he is not quite acclimatised, or has not yet dis covered the soul of Norfolk. I used water.

It is plentiful, and the heat required to ripen a boil should not cost much anywhere —seeing it only takes a shilling’s worth to ripen each case of bananas in Sydney.”

WE hear of an island in the Eastern Pacific where the natives, being short of ordinary currency, buy their “Picture” entertainment by means of live fowls. The idea has much to recommend it from the viewpoint of the native, because he has a very good chance of getting down on the same fowl, or that of someone else, later on, and handing it in at the booking office at the next show of pictures. The showman concerned declares he already has detected a thinning out of birds from their newly constructed wire-netting en closure.

HORTICULTURAL skill already provides residents in the Pacific Islands with most of the vegetables which they are accustomed to eat in temperate climes — such as cabbages, carrots, lettuces, radishes, peas, and so on; but up to date, tropical dwellers have longed in vain for the succu lent cauliflower. Mr. B. C. Green, of the New Guinea Department of Agriculture, however, brings a word of hope from the Trinidad College of Agriculture. He has ascertained that there is a cauliflower— which tastes just like any other cauliflower —which can be grown quite satisfactorily in the tropics. He has seen them and has eaten them in the West Indies, and he says that they are “beauties.” He has taken steps to procure the seed of this attractive vegetable from India; and we predict that if all goes well there will soon be very special reason why New Guinea folk will seek invitation to the Rabaul dinner-table of Mr. and Mrs. Green.

A NEW product of tropical agriculture is the Tonka bean, which, according to Mr. E. C. Green (just returned from the Trinidad College of Agriculture) gives a flavouring quality for tobacco, gin and similar substances. The bean is very much in demand and is profitable to grow, but it is extremely difficult to propagate and takes eight years to come into bearing.

The bean is dried, steeped in rum, and then dried again. It grows wild in Venezuela.

A YEAR or so ago a British naval unit anchored off a Polynesian atoll. A small boat put out from the island and a white man, neatly dressed in white duck, came aboard the cruiser and shook hands with the Commander. To the officers’ ward-room they went. The conversation sparkled, and turned upon incidents of the Great War. Then it was found that both men had seen service at Gallipoli.

“And what were you doing on the Peninsula?” asked the Commander.

“Oh, I was with the Aussies,” replied the Islander. “A lance-jack in the foot sloggers.”

“Good God!” exclaimed the Commander,

“Do you know I have been 20,000 miles through the Pacific, and you are the first ex-service man I have met below the rank of major!”

A CORRESPONDENT in Fiji says: “I note that some of your readers object to the use of the word ‘coon’ as applied to natives. So far as I know, there is no objection to the word, unless from some white person who has gone native. The word ‘nigger’ is quite commonly and openly used, both as a means of descrip tion and as an expression of contempt.”

A CHEERY party sailed out of Sydney Harbour on July 8 in the yacht Gundoa (a converted steam launch, about 15 tons, schooner-rigged) for Lord Howe, Norfolk Island, Noumea, Fiji—and anywhere else in the Pacific where they may be taken by the winds of chance and inclination. The party included Mrs. G. M. Vine, owner of the yacht; Mr. D. R. H. MacCarthy, Cap tain L. Kingdon, of New Zealand, navi gator; and Mr. Cedric Belfrage, film critic of the “Sunday Express,” London, now on a world wander. Mrs. Vine hopes to reach England about August, 1935. Mr. Belfrage probably will leave the party somewhere in the Pacific, with the object of spending a few months in Tahiti and the West Indies.