To Nukuhiva
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Plan for "Ideal Community"
SYDNEY “Daily Telegraph” is respon sible for the story that a young Australian, Fred. Briggs, newly-married, is organising a colony to settle on Nukuhiva Island, in the Marquesas, in French Oceania, It is to be an “ideal community”, in which all will be equal, sharing alike in work and wealth, and forgetting, as far as possible, the horrors of a war-tom, dictator-ridden world.
It is said that about 50 or 60 men and women are ready to join in the plan; and that they will soon proceed to Nukuhiva, via Tahiti.
The selection of the island is sound, at any rate. Nukuhiva, 20 miles long by 12 across, is a rich and beautiful land of broad, well-watered valleys, lying between steep, verdure-clad hills. There is a splendid harbour at Tai-o-hae— once the busy administrative centre.
When Europeans first visited Nuku hiva—and introduced their diseases and vices—there were at least 100,000 natives in the Marquesas, and Nuku hiva supported tens of thousands of happy, handsome Polynesian people.
To-day, there remains only a miserable remnant, consisting of a few hundred natives, in all the group.
There is plenty of room in the Mar quesas, especially on the three large islands of Hiva-oa, Nukuhiva, and Tahuata, for a large population. They lie in the same latitude as Thursday Island or Eastern Papua, but they en joy a cooler and more equable climate.
Mr. William J. Gasgoine married Miss Nellie Churchward at Apia Pro testant Church, Western Samoa, re cently. Rev. H. S. Perkins officiated, and the reception afterwards was held at the Tivoli Theatre.