No Desire To Live

THE following note on the natives of Ongtong Java (Lord Howe Group), which lies north-eastward of the Solo mons, is contained in a letter written by the Bishop of Melanesia (Rev. Baddeley), who visited Ongtong Java in September, 1934: “We received a very warm welcome and came away eventually, after two days’ stay, with more boys both for Maravovo and Maka, and two or three young men for Tabalia. Years ago, there was a big population here but it has dwindled to about 700. And they appear to be “chesty” (the coughing on board on the return journey kept most of us awake) and they don’t seem to have mucn desire to live.

“At any rate, we are not too late. The Government will help with medical sup plies and when the folk see there is a real purpose in life, they will begin to come up again. I felt like punching them in the chest and saying, ‘Cheer up, there’s lots

to live for and you are not dead yet.’

I am not a member of the ‘hearty’ school but I am sure we have got to instil some joy of life into folk. These Lord Howe folk will respond, I am sure, as the Sikaianna folk have done.

“The atoll itself is a most extraordin ary sight—a great coral reef in mid ocean, oval in shape, with its long “axis” (is that the right word?) some 26 miles long; here and there on the reef an island —two of them only inhabited—and within the reef a great stretch of beautiful water.”

Canon Horace Packe, of Gisborne, New Zealand, who at one time was Vicar of Suva, Fiji, recently died at Gisborne, where he had been living in retirement.