Tropicalities

IT was recently announced that the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations at Geneva examined the 1934 reports respecting New Guinea and Nauru on June 4. The official secretary to the Commonwealth in London (Sir John Mc- Laren) give the Commission supplementary information.

One wonders how long this farce will continue. Presumably, as long as the League of Nations exists: and there is no indication, yet, that that useless structure is to be abandoned. Each nation, as it finds the principles of the League at variance with its national ambitions, resigns from the League, or simply ignores it —Japan and Germany, the world’s most prominent land-hungry Powers, are no table absentees nowadays—but all the countries of the British Empire continue to subscribe large sums annually to this monument of fatuousness, and send (all expenses paid) well-meaning, loquacious, old gentlemen to Geneva to broadcast platitudes about the brotherhood of man.

The Mandates Commission never has interfered with the administration of New Guinea and Samoa; and, probably, never will. The only effect of its “examination” of the Territories’ annual reports is to cause months of delay in the publication of these reports, to the exasperation of everyone who has to deal with the printed compilations. * * * AN auxiliary yacht of over 100 tons was endeavouring to go alongside a large wharf in the Solomon Islands, where the “Malaita” berths without difficulty.

After two hours’ of manoeuvring, and about 68 movements of the twin engines, the second engineer lost his temper, and yelled up the engine room telephone to the distracted skipper: “For Heaven’s sake stick a periscope down the ventilator, and I’ll take the d—d thing alongside myself!” * * * WRITING to the “Sydney Morning Herald” on May 9, Sir J. H. P. Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of Papua, makes a correction in the name of a Papuan lake

in the Fly River district. It was stated in the “Herald” that an American expedition seeking disease-resisting sugar-cane along the Fly several years ago had named the lake “Herbert Hoover.”

“It is true, as stated by your correspon dent,” wrote Sir Hubert, “that an American expedition did attempt to affix the name of Hoover to this sheet of water, but its real name is Warn, and Warn is the name by which it is called in the territory. Warn was known long before the expert came to Papua, and the name ‘Lake Hoover,’ or ‘Herbert Hoover,’ is, in fact, never applied to it.” * * * CORRESPONDENCE which has reached us from South Africa, via the London Missionary Society in Papua, asks us if we will assist in a search for a man named Domingo de Brum. The inquiry originates from a German resident of South Africa who was a fellow prisoner of war with de Brum at Liverpool, near Sydney. They were good friends there, but parted at the end of the war, and one man went to Africa, while de Brum is believed to have returned to the Marshall or Caroline Islands. It is believed that he lived on the island of Liegib, now under Japanese mandate.

If anyone in the Pacific Islands knows of the whereabouts of Domingo de Brum, he is asked to communicate with the editor of this journal, and we shall be happy to place de Brum in communication with his old friend of the war days.

Or he may write direct to E. A. Zedler “Pelendaba,” P.O. Blikana, South Africa * * * MR. W. H. BRABANT, who retired from the Fiji Civil Service 10 years ago, and since has been a world-wanderer, passed through Sydney recently, en route to England, after 18 months in Suva. “Fiji is intrinsically a rich country, but apparently is poor because it suffers from so many absent capitalists, who live and spend their dividends out of the Colony,” says Mr. Brabant.

This is an interesting viewpoint. On paper, Fiji is one of the richest colonies in the Empire. But its wealth comes from the sugar grown and exported by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company; and the shareholders of this huge concern, of course, do not live in Fiji. It was the C.S.R. Co. which introduced the Indians to Fiji. In the circumstances, an inquiry into the known consequences and probable ultimate effect of the invasion of Fiji by the C.S.R. Co. would prove instructive and useful. * * * NEW ZEALAND is to make an effort to introduce the avocado pear from Tahiti. Hitherto, it has been found impossible to export this delicate fruit. By using the “dipping” process, however, which has been successful in Australia with pears and pineapples for the English market, it is hoped that a trade will be built up between Papeete and Wellington.

Both avacado pears and mangoes have been shipped to Sydney, after undergoing that process, with success. The avocado, or the alligator pear, as it is sometimes called, is a popular dish in the little cafes that front the streets of Papeete, and if it can be transhipped to New Zealand and Australia at a reasonable price, should be equally a favourite on both sides of the Tasman Sea.

R. D. FRISBEE, the American writer who has made his home on Puka Puka, or Danger Island, in the northern Cook Group, now has neighbours. Dr. and Mrs.

Beaglehole are carrying out an scientific investigation there on behalf of the Bishop Museum. Mrs. Beaglehole, incidentally, has made a special study of the intricate “cat’s cradle” games, which are known from one end of Polynesia to the other, and amazed the old women of Puka Puka with demonstrations of her skill.

With his “Book of Puka Puka,” which was written, very largely, at the instigation of another American writer, James Norman Hall, R, D. Prisbee quite definitely put his little island on the map.

Apart from his writing, Mr. Prisbee is interested in the voyages of the ancient Polynesians, and has made a study of the star courses that the Puka Pukans’ of old used, and which are remembered by their descendants of to-day. Puka Puka, on one occasion was visited by the notorious “Bully” Hayes, who carried off 19 of the islanders, including their chief, to Samoa.

With them was a party of islanders from Manihiki. A British inquiry in Apia, how ever, set these people at liberty, though many of them died before they could be returned to their island homes. * * * A RARE little volume that reached a good price at a recent sale of second hand books in Sydney was “Stories of the Island World” by Charles Nordhoff, published in 1857. Charles Nordhoff was the whaler grandfather of the American novelist, Charles B. Nordhoff, now residing at Punauuia, in Tahiti. “The Merchant Vessel,” “Whaling and Pishing,” and an early account of a visit to New Zealand, were other books written by Charles Nord hoff, the elder. He travelled continuously around the Pacific in the 40’s and 50’s of last century, and also collected his impressions of northern California and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). It is interesting to note, in view of the Nordhoff family’s associations with whaling in the Pacific, that Charles B., with his partner, James Norman Hall, is now contemplating a work that will tell the romantic story of the old whalers who voyaged from the American coast to the Antarctic, touching at Tahiti, the Marquesas, the Bay of Islands, (N.Z.), and Port Jackson. * * * OFFICIAL statistics of civil flying operations for the last three years show that, of the total freight carried by air through out Australasia and New Guinea, no less than 98.39 per cent, was carried in New Guinea alone. During the final year dealt with (1934) the cargo carried by air in this corner of the world belonged, as to 99.09 per cent., to New Guinea. It was stated at the annual meeting of Guinea Airways Ltd., that the bulk of the freight was carried by that company. In 1934, the 33.64 per cent, of the passenger traffic for Australasia and New Guinea was handled by the New Guinea transport services. New Guinea aviation accounted for as much as 79.32 per cent, of the to tal weight of mails carried in Australasia and New Guinea combined.

By a resolution of the directors, a call of 10/ per share has been made on all the contributing shares in W. R. Carpenter and Company, Ltd., payable as follows: 2/ per share on July 1, 1935, 2/ on October 1, 1935, 2/ on January 1, 1936, 2/ on April 1, 1936, and 2/ on July 1, 1936.