Tropicalities

WHILE Commonwealth and State Governments, in September, were very busily entertaining Japan’s “Ambas sador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary,” sent on a goodwill mission to Australia, Australian pearl-fishers (who are fighting a losing battle against Japanese fishers in the Timor Sea) were reporting that Japanese fishing-vessels are regularly landed, careened, cleaned, repaired and watered on Bathurst Island, in defiance of about fifty laws which guard Aus tralian territorial rights. Other reports stated that Japanese poachers are busy again among the pearlshell beds of New Guinea; and that, to combat the Japanese poachers, the Commonwealth Government has decided to purchase two very fast patrol vessels, one of which will be stationed in Darwin, and the others, de signed according to the requirements of the Administrator of New Guinea, will be stationed at Rabaul. The launch for Darwin will arrive in Australia from England before the end of the year.. * * * IT was announced in mid-September that Mr. W. R. Carpenter, head of the well-known Islands trading and shipping firm, had made a most generous donation to the Maternal and Infant Welfare Fund.

He has given his beautiful house and grounds at Wollstonecraft, Sydney, to be used as a Jubilee Maternity Hospital, together with £ 5000 in cash to be used for the endowment of the institution. The total value of the gift is £20,000.

“W.R.C.” was never a man to do things by halves.

The Federal Government expressed warm appreciation of the full-bodied gift. ■“Sir William Randolph Carpenter” should be a pretty sound tip for the New Year.

OF 1868 cases heard by the native courts, 1776 convictions were secured, many on curious charges, stated the New Guinea Administrator in the last report to the League of Nations. For failure to cease singing and dancing at 9 p.m. 33 natives were convicted, while 27 were convicted for playing football in places not prescribed. Twenty-one were tried tor spreading false reports, 116 for steal ing, 46 for sorcery, 54 for having intoxi cating liquor, five for unlawfully wearing clothes on the upper part of the body, and 118 for failing to appear for census taking, while three were convicted for remaining in Rabaul for a longer period than four days without employment. * * * "W/ITH the caption “In the Good Old »» Days,” this little story was sent by a resident of Vanua Levu, Fiji, who was for many years a trader in the group and who is now an established planter. It is with more than a passing suspicion of the identity of the knavish trader con cerned that we print the anecdote: The trader had weighed the Fijian’s copra on his “Ambush Scales” (those that lie in weight) and had paid the native £2/16/-. The native counted the money twice, and again checked weights and price. By his “ready reckoner” the native made it £3/16/-, not £2/16/-. A slight argument followed, the trader insisting that £2/16/- was correct, the native stuck to £3/16/-.

"Your ready reckoner must be wrong,” said the trader, “Let’s have a look at it.

Of course it’s wrong; £2/16/- is correct.

That’s last year’s book, not this year’s, that you’ve got there!”

WE have been informed that about 1906 Captain Charles Memmuir, a repre sentative of the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society, was captain of a vessel named the Upolu and that this vessel went to Thursday Island and ob tained there 30,000 live specimens of pearl shell and took the consignment to Suwar row Lagoon in the Northern Cooks and planted the pearl shell there. Does any old hand in the Pacific know, anything about this? It would be very interesting to know if such an experiment was made and what was the result of it. * * * ALTHOUGH there are only 10 miles of formed roads on the island of Nauru, the community there owns and operates no less than 50 motor cars, not to men tion several motor cycles and innumerable bicycles. This is characteristic of Pacific Islands communities generally. There are an astonishing number of motor vehicles in use in such places as Port Moresby, Rabaul, Vila, and Rarotonga; while the number of motor cars owned privately or run for hire in Suva, Noumea, and Tahiti seems to be out of all propor tion to the population. So far as bicycles are concerned, it seems to be the ambition of every Europeanised native to own a machine of some sort —although the fre quent sight of one uncomplaining bicycle carrying three or even four natives sug gests a communal rather than an indi vidual ownership.

WE get many visitors at the Melane sian Mission Press,” says Mr. F. R.

Isom, in a letter from the Solomons. Mr.

Isom is the printer there, and he is as sisted in his interesting work by his wife.

“Two recent visitors were a Rennel Island native and his wife. Mr. and Mrs.

Printer were both setting up type at their cases.

“ ‘Good morning, master,’ said the na tive male to the white male; and, on receiving a polite reply, he looked towards Mrs. Printer, and for a moment seemed

at a loss. Then his face brightened, and. with a cheerful smile, he inclined his head to Mrs. Printer, saying, ‘Good morning, Boss/ “Gracious reply from white missis!” * * * ONE of the objects of ethnological in terest studied by Professor Peter Buck, of the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, during his recent survey of European Museums, was a wooden image presented to Queen Victoria in 1841 by the Samoan King Malietoa. The figure was repro duced in Kraemer’s “Die Samoa-Inseln.” and aroused considerable discussion. Be fore examining it in the British Museum Professor Buck was inclined to the view that it was of post-European manufac ture. Doubt as to the purely native origin of the image vanished, however, as soon as he held it in his hand. His opinion now is that it was made locally in Samoa by an inferior artist who was either Ton gan, or who was acquainted with the general appearance of images made in Hapaii.

When John Williams, the famous mis sionary, visited the Tongan Group in 1830 he was shown “five goddesses hanging by the neck” by Taufaahau (better known in later years as King George I.). On asking, Mr, Williams was given one of the images, which he took to England,, and reproduced a drawing of it. Unfortun ately, it has not since been traced as, presumably, it did not pass into the Bri tish Museum with other objects (now of priceless value) from the London Mis sionary Society’s collection.

Nevertheless, Professor Buck came across a similar figure in the celebrated collection of Captain A. W. F. Fuller, and was thus enabled to make an interesting comparison. Two other figures, similar to Captain Fuller’s, are in the Oldman Collection in London. Professor Buck says there is a strong possibility that one of them is the image George Tubou gave to John Williams.

Mr. E. H. Cherry, who has been en gineer in charge of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission’s activities at Aore, South Santo, New Hebrides, for three years, arrived in Sydney by the Laperouse on September 14. He was accompanied by his wife and two sons.