Tropicalities

THERE are bitumen roads all around Apia (Samoa) now; and the mis chievous boys of the native villages de rive entertainment from the fact that the bitumen surface can be made very slip pery. For this nefarious purpose, they use the juice of the bread-fruit, which they smear on the roadway. The unsus pecting elder of the village—or anyone else, for that matter —walking in the darkness onto the juicy patch, is said to turn as pretty a “seven” as anything seen in vaudeville. The dignified representa tive of the New Zealand United Press, on a visit there in July, thought the prac tice quite funny—until he himself was trapped, and performed vivid acrobatics before a mixed and appreciative com pany. * * * THE following typical “item” was pub- A lished recently in a newspaper in Los Angeles., U.S.A.: “A new British-American syndicate soon will be formed to mine placer gold from deepest, head-hunting New Guinea, according to Mr. Stanley Johnston, pros pector, of Australia, who arrived in Los Angeles aboard the Mariposa. After a few days in Los Angeles he proposed to hurry on to New York to sail thence for London.

“Mr. Johnston, who said he had already found rich sands in Papua, declared he had concessions from Australia and Hol land to prospect for gold and oil far in the interior, where last year a patrol found two strange races. One was white, of fair skin and light hair and of stocky build; the other black and of Semetic features, who excelled at bartering. Not one-fifth of the country’s 300,000 square miles has been prospected, he said, due to malaria and to savage tribes.

“Of the strange race of white men found last year, he quoted their discov erers, Messrs. Jack Hides, a magistrate, and J. O’Malley, a patrol officer: ‘They avoid intermarriage by yearly inviting single males of another tribe for a three day party with maids of another,’ he said.

When the party is over the men take home new wives. When they want div orces all they have to do is cast them off!’ ” ♦ * * 'ATOUNG Cakobau, of the royal house of Fiji, was on a liner in Sydney har bour, on his way home to Suva from an Australian college, when he was ap proached by a reporter, who made the initial mistake of trying to talk to him in a kind of Pidgin. Having settled that matter to his satisfaction, the prince grimly awaited further developments.

“And what are you going to do, now, in Fiji, Mr. Cakobau?” chirruped the re porter.

“Oh, I’m going to grow bananas with zip fasteners!” replied the prince, and thus got rid of the pest. * * * THE New Zealand authorities, who operate in Samoa one of the most fantastic systems of liquor-control ever seen in captivity, excuse themselves by saying that the system is planned for the protection of the natives.

There are Polynesians in Tonga and semi-Polynesians in Fiji; but the Gov ernments of those Territories, who are just as concerned as New Zealand about

native welfare, do not attempt anything so ridiculous as the Samoan prohibition law. Europeans in Tonga can purchase whatever liquor they require; but if they misbehave, or break the liquor laws, they are forbidden to have liquor. Natives must not be supplied with liquor, except in special circumstances.

In Fiji, liquor is sold to Europeans, without restriction, through licensed hotels and clubs. Liquor must not be supplied to Fijians or Indians; but re sponsible Indians and Fijians, of good class, may obtain permits to purchase liquor. Misbehaviour, of course, brings cancellation of the permit. * * * /AUR ethnological friends may be interested in a statement made to me by Mr, C. E. Hall, cabinet-maker, of Apia.

Mr, Hall has made almost a lifetime study of Samoan timbers, and he says that two trees, peculiar to India, were found growing on the coastal belt of Savaii and Upolu when Europeans arrived. They are the timbers known as Indian Nutwood (wild almond) and Tulip-wood. For an explanation of their presence in Samoa, we apparently must go back beyond re corded history, to the so-called Poly nesian migrations, which are believed to have had their origin in India. —R.W.R. * * * A WELL-KNOWN citizen of Suva met many old friends in Sydney, with the inevitable result. The Suva man, being very completely under “the influence,” decided to call it a day and go home. He found his way out into Martin Place, crawled carefully into a taxi, and curled up on the seat. In Suva, such matters are easily arranged: the Indian taxi drivers know him, and his home, and no further directions are required. But the Sydney taxi-man was at a disadvantage, “Where to, sir?” he said. The Suva man sighed deeply. The taxi-man repeated his question. The Suva citizen stirred him

self slightly. “Home, dammit, home!” he growled. And as that was all the driver could get out of him, he did the only poss ible thing, and drove the patient round and about the city until he had sufficiently recovered to give his Sydney address.

Another Fiji resident, celebrating in Sydney his accession to a share of gold fields wealth, drove a car out to Double Bay; and, in front of a block of flats there, ran over and broke a fire hydrant.

The resulting waterspout lifted the car into the air, but the Fiji man got safely away from it. He was sitting sadly watching the waterspout when indignant caretakers and police assembled. “Who did this?” they asked him. “A woman driver,’” said the Fijian. “She hopped it.

Terribly unreliable, these women drivers —oughtn’t to be allowed to have licenses.”

The police are still looking for the care less woman motorist. • * * XT ERE is a new kind of family pet. I was having afternoon tea with a family in Suva when I was unexpectedly nipped on the ankle by a tortoise. When the excitement had died down, and apolo gies had been given for the unladylike be haviour of “Cleopatra,” I asked why so curious a creature had been admitted to the domestic circle. “Dogs and cats soon get old and die,” I was informed. “We grew tired of weeping over them and burying them. We were told that tor toises live for hundreds of years. Cleo patra is said to be over 50 years old, and she isn’t a bit withered. Cleopatra knows us all, and is very happy.”—R.W.R.

Monsieur F. Colardeau, member of New Caledonia’s Parliament, arrived in Sydney in September on his way to France- for a year. He is president of the Returned Soldiers’ Association at Noumea and is one of the most distinguished lawyers in the French Colony.

Mrs. Waikainga Tipene, chieftainess of the Polynesian Club of Sydney, left for New Zealand in September on a visit. In Wellington she will convey reciprocal greetings to the Maori Club from Sydney Polynesians.