"Hullo, Canton!"

Phoenix Base In Touch With Union Liners By Radio-telephone

From Our Own Correspondent

Honolulu, Dec. 3.

HTHE British occupation of Canton Is * land a probable future air base in the Phoenix Group, has become a thrill for travellers by the Union liners Aorangi and Niagara. Between Fiji and Hawaii, they pass within a mile of the island and see the British flag fluttering in the tropic easterly wind. Sometimes the liners drop mail and supplies in watertight containers and the men ashore row out and recover the welcome “cargo/’

Permanent buildings, including refri geration, have been build upon the sites occupied by the N.Z.. and American solar eclipse parties earlier this year. Present residents, the pioneers, are Messrs. Frank Rostier (radio operator) and George Langdale (lately second mate of the Fijian Government’s yacht Pioneer) and a Gilbertese servant. Mr. Langdale com piles weather reports which are trans mitted daily to Suva and other British sources.

It is said that the Colonial Office doubled the salaries of the men for their six months’ work on the island. Thus.

Mr. Rostier should be getting nearly £A2O weekly for what he has told his friends is a Pacific idyll. It is expected that soon he will be replaced by Mr. Tom Manning, another Colonial Office radio employee now in Suva.

The Gilbert Islander is tickled pink with his Canton job. He is a general handyman and always handles the surf beat. Especially is he “goggle-eyed” when the liners talk with Rostier and Lang dale by radio-telephone, which has a range of about 200 miles. The white men tell of the grunts and chuckles of delight as the Gilbertese listens to the voices over a small loud speaker.

As they pass the island, the liners make radio bearings on their direction finders which are used almost every voy age in the fogs off the Canadian coast.

These checks at Canton Island assure the navigators of the instruments’ accuracy.

Of course, all this occurs without the knowledge of the passengers who group at the ship’s rail.

In case the liners pass at night, the two Canton residents have erected a tower near their camp and 24 feet high they have set a gasoline lamp which they light when expecting the liners. The light is visible at least 14 miles away, and the navigating officers aboard the liners appreciate it very much.

A memorial service arranged by the Gower Wilson Memorial Committee was held on board the Morinda, en route from Sydney to Lord Howe Is., on November 1, to mark the anniversary of the loss of the launch Viking . which, with Gower Wilson and five others, disappeared while on a voyage from Sydney to Lord Howe Is. The service ’was conducted by the new Administrator of Norfolk Is’and (Sir Charles Rosenthal).