Unspoiled Mangaia

From Our Own Correspondent RAROTONGA, December 1.

AMONG those proceeding on leave by the next Maunganui are Mr. and Mrs.

McGruther, Resident Agent and Resident Nurse respectively at Mangaia. Mr. Mc- Gruther has just completed his fourth term of office and can look back at 12 years’ residence in the most southerly of the Cook Group. During his absence the affairs of the island will be managed by the Island Council.

Anyone wishing to escape the winter cold of overseas countries, might well con sider Mangaia as a suitable refuge. The people are kind and hospitable; they are unspoiled by over-contact with civilisation and retain many of their old customs. The climate is peculiarly mild and temperate and there is an abundance of native food stuffs, so that living may be made exceed ingly moderate. The island is in com munication with Rarotonga by wireless, and schooners call approximately every two or three months.

For many years Mangaia has been re garded as the most contented and best-run of all the outer islands of the Lower Group, and there is no doubt that this har monious state of affairs is due to the tact, sympathy and interest displayed by both Mr. and Mrs. McGruther, who are them selves of Polynesian extraction.

Mr. A. L. Savage, who has been ap pointed to replace Mr. K. S. J. Chamber lain, recently transferred to Gibraltar, as Deputy Treasurer of Fiji, arrived in Suva by the Niagara on December 15. Mr.

Savage, who was formerly Assistant Treasurer in Northern Rhodesia, was accompanied by his wife and two chil dren.