Manihiki Island

Should Resident Agent be Experienced Islander or Technician?

From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga, June 13.

THE recent death of Captain John Me- Culloch has left Manihiki Island (Northern Cooks) temporarily without a Resident Agent, and rumour holds that the main* qualification for his successor will be a knowledge of wireless telegraphy.

Whether this is correct or not, a number of local residents have added their appli cations to those already before the authorities.

The post of Resident Agent on an iso lated atoll requires a combination of tem perament, qualities and experience not usually found among wireless operators.

In the opinion of many people it would be unwise to select an applicant princi pally on technical grounds rather than on those for which the position specifically calls.

In the past it was generally the custom to appoint men who had already spent a large part of their lives in the Islands.

Frequently, they were schooner captains grown weary of seafaring, but whose in clinations still bound them closely to their environment. Often thev had mar ried native women. They kn€w the lan guage and the habits of the people, their weaknesses, and foibles.

Under them it was certain that the spirit would always triumph over the pre cise letter of the law which they were there to administer. Almost without ex ception they expected to die in the land of their adoption. It was their “home”— not simply a halt on the road to some where, and it would be as unreasonable as it would be unlikely to find such views shared by the average young man of to-day.

Manihiki is approximately 650 miles N.N.W. of Rarotonga. It has a population of some 700, and, with the exception of a Catholic priest, there are no resident Europeans. There is no anchorage. The highest point of land is not more than 10 or 12ft. above sea level. The annual per capita wealth of the people is probably under £l.

It is, therefore, a little puzzling to know exactly why the erection of a wireless station should be thought necessary or beneficial. Assuredly it will not prove the latter if the kindly and sympathetic rule of a man familiar with native life is to be substituted for that of an inexperienced person for whom the novelty of his posi tion would be the only excuse for the ignorance which he might display.