Co-Operative Societies

Ellice Is. Natives Form

ELLICE ISLANDS natives have adopted a communal system of trading which has resulted in the white traders being ousted from the group, said Captain G.

H. Heyen, who arrived in Sydney from New Guinea by the Van Spilbergen on May 14, Captain Heyen is an Australian, and has been master of a vessel trading in the Islands for the past six years. He told the Sydney newspapers that co-operative societies had been formed on every island in the Ellice Group, and that the system was functioning smoothly. The headman

of each village, assisted by leading natives, would collect all copra cut by the natives, sell it to one of the large trading firms, and receive goods in return. These goods —foodstuffs, materials, soap, etc. —would be distributed proportionately among the members of the society.

A similar system had been inaugurated in the Gilbert Islands, continued Captain Heyen, but had not met with the same success as that in the adjacent Ellice Group. In the Gilberts, jealousies and dissension had caused some of the natives to form breakaway societies, thus defeating the purpose of the organisation. There were, for instance, 16 separate societies on the island of Marakei.

EDITORIAL NOTE.—It will be interesting to note the results of development described by Captain Heyen. Attempts have been made on many occasions, in various groups, to fornl co-operative societies, for trading, producing or exporting purposes, among the Polynesian peoples, but they rarely, if ever, succeed. There is something in the Polynesian character which sooner or later destroys the true spirit of co-operation, and these activities presently drift back into the hands of private traders. That is the more remarkable, because the Polynesians’ habit of life, before contact with Europeans, was practically that of a cooperative society.

The U.S. Senate has approved of a subsidy of £400,000 to assist Pan-American Airways Ltd. to establish its air line across the Pacific. The company proposes to fly giant ’planes from San Francisco to Manila (Philippine Islands), via Hawaii, Midway Island, and Guam.