Tahiti Rebels Against Jazz
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent.
Papeete, Sept. 20.
HISTORY is dotted with examples of how events momentous to the human race germinated and came to flower in the most unlikely and remote places. For instance, was not grim, Arctic Iceland the hearth-place of liberty and a centre of literature; and did not art and poetry flourish in far away Bag dad, at a time when the barbarians of the European continent were gnawing bones and howling in uncouth measures around their camp fires in the wilderness?
Such a destiny seems to portend for Tahiti.
The young people of our island have rebelled against the cacophony of jazz and the monotony of modern dances.
Under the tutelage of dancing masters of other days, they are learning the waltz, the quadrille, the schottische, and the mazurka.
“Great oaks from little acorns grow.”
Can we hope that at some not distant day we may turn the dial of our radio with the certainty that we shall hear gracious and pleasing dance music, in stead of the horrible, discordant sounds which compel us nightly to shut off our instrument and to wonder if beauty and good taste have fled forever from our planet.
Mr. A. J. Birtles, of Wellington, Ne# Zealand, has succeeded Rev. A. C. Cato, M.A., 8.D., Dip. Ed., as head of the Metho dist Mission’s training college at Davui levu, Fiji. After four years’ work at Davuilevu, Mr. Cato has gone to Kadavu.