North

Our Cousins In The

Fine New Novel Gives South Seas a Chance to Read Fascinating Story of Old Hawaii

OY some freak of Nature, Hawaii is located north of the Equator. In tradition, history, outlook, racial associa tions, as in vegetation, colourfulness and manner of life, Hawaii belongs south of the Line.

The Philippines, Borneo, the East In dies are classed generally as “Pacific Islands;” but in races, fauna and flora, they seem a part of Asia. Hawaii is dif ferent. Hawaii, somehow, is linked with the heart and soul of Polynesia. Hawaii, Tahiti, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Gilbert and Ellice, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga—they recognise many different flags and are governed by a multitude of economic systems; but the politics which divide them are as nothing in comparison with the fundamental things which unite them.

All lovers of Polynesia hope to see the growth of stronger bonds with Hawaii.

We people here in the South Seas want to hear more, and oftener, about our cousins in the northern group. The story of what is happening to the Hawaiians under North American and Asiatic in fluences is of great interest and im mense political significance to all the territories south of the Line. Somehow, we do not get half enough news about Hawaii and the Hawaiian.

These reflections arise as we read Blood of the Shark . a novel by Mrs. Beat rice Patton, just published at two and a half dollars by Paradise of the Pacific, publishers, of Honolulu. It is an his torical romance and, considered as a novel, it is attractively written, quick moving and eminently readable.

But it is as an historical document that we find its special charm. Here is a vivid chapter in the life of Old Hawaii, and characters famous in the little king dom between 1800 and 1830 play a part in Mrs. Patton’s story.

Adam Gordon, an English officer of good family, leaves Vancouver’s ship in Hawaii; marries a Hawaiian girl of ex ceptional beauty, courage and intelli gence: and is caught up in the fierce and dramatic politics of King Kamehameha’s reign. Mrs. Patton is a true historian— while weaving her story very cleverly among the outstanding events and people of that rollicking period of wars and intrigues, pestilences and tragic roman ces, she has faithfully preserved the historical background.

Thus, we who live in the South Seas, and ask for something about the fascina ting story of Hawaii, may get it here in a most acceptable form—as an epic love story. together with a faithful presenta tion of life as it was lived in the beautiful group a hundred years ago, and with a very careful picture of the amazing poli tical intrigues of that time.

Some of the high peaks of the narfa

tive: The luau (Hawaiian feast) at which Adam inadvertently becomes a husband; the character portrayals of Vancouver, Marin, Kamehameha; the Nuuanu Valley victory that made Kame hameha the Napoleon of the Pacific; Kilohana’s killing of a shark in Pearl Harbour; the cholera epidemic that swept the islands in 1804; old Spanish days in California when gay caballeros roped grizzly bears; the Skippers’ Race from Monterey to Honolulu between the fore-and-aft Lucy and the square-rigged Lily Bird. And towering above all in gloomy grandeur and dramatic force the tremendous chapter that tells of the crazed and dying sorceress hag, Ahia, in whom the blood of Awini was strong, weaving the magic net in which she her self became entangled—the net that was to sink the hated white men’s ships.

Dr. Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), himself a Polynesian and director of Ber nice P. Bishop Museum. Honolulu, in the foreword, testifies that the novel is one of those rare books that depict the soul as well as the dress of a people.

The book gets its title, Blood of the Shark, from the study of the old Hawai ian totemism which the authoress makes in developing the character of her hero ine (Adam Gordon’s wife). We see her influenced in extraordinary fashion by the ancient superstitions of her race; and then we see her horror-struck hus band recognising that after all there is little fundamental difference between the things which he sees his wife doing, and the time-worn superstitions observed as a matter of course by his own old people back in England.

Every man who knows Polynesia, and has been distressed by certain psycholo gical misunderstandings between the Europeans and the brown folk with whom they have allied themselves, should read Mrs. Patton’s clever story. They

“will see a little clearer, and judge less harshly where they cannot see.”

But the chief value of the book is in its history. Here is a chance for the South Seas to read the astonishing story

of early Hawaii.

R.W.R.

Hon. J. T. O’Malley, Commissioner for Native Affairs in Papua, sailed from Sydney for Port Moresby by the Montoro on February 24.

Mrs. S. G. C. Knibbs, wife of the Commissioner of Lands in the British Solomon Islands, departed from Sydney for Tulagi by the Malaita on March 6.

Mrs. Catherine Robinson, wife of Mr.

Richard Robinson, of Levuka, Fiji, died at Levuka on February 19, at the age of 71. She went to the Colony from New Zealand over 50 years ago.