Pacific Islands Club.

MEMBERS of the Pacific Islands Club held a successful gathering at the Hotel Carlton, Sydney, on February 2, wh,en Hon, George H. Murray, M.L.C., Director of Agriculture in New Guinea, was the guest of honour. Including a number of Islands visitors, there was an attendance of over 80.

Lecturing on “Agriculture, European

and Native, in the Mandated Terri tory”, Mr. Murray dealt with the culti vation of copra, cocoa, coffee, rubber, palm oil, kapok, cinchona, cotton, and sisal hemp. Hon. Ata, of Nukualofa, spoke briefly on “The System of Land Tenure in Tonga”.

The function was rounded off with a musical programme, which included a particularly spirited performance of Maori songs and dances by Chief Noho Toki.

Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, the well known South Seas novelist, wr.s to have addressed the gathering, telling of her ad ventures in the Pacific in search of ma terial for her books; but at the last moment she was unable to attend owing to an attack of malaria. Formerly a resident of Papua, Miss Grimshaw how resides at Kelso, near Bathurst, N.S.W.

The Club now has its own magazine, “Te Karere* (Th,e Messenger), priced 3d., which is sent gratis to all members in the Islands.

Rev. 0. Furness was accepted by the Foreign Mission Board of the Methodist Society in January for work at Rotuma

Island, Fiji.

* Mr. R. Chant, manager of the Sapphire Creek mine of Mandated Alluvials N.L. in Papua, reached Sydney from Port

Moresby by the January “Macdhui”.