Money Mystery

Explained

"Dollars" and "Reals" In Tahiti

From Our Own Correspondent yTnrm/-\t-i PAPEETE. Feb. 9.

ISITORS to Tahiti are likely to be mystified by the terms used in trading transactions at most of the shops about Papeete.

The official currency is the money of France—francs and centimes. Yet when inquiring the cost of some piece of nierchandise, one usually is told that the price is one dollar two quar ters, which signifies seven francs, or one dollar three reals, if the price is six francs fifty centimes.

Now, by what magic of arithmetic has a unit of money (the five franc note) been endowed with five quarters instead of four? The stranger in the islands remains bewildered until he learns the history of Moni Manu (bird money).

During the greater part of the nineteenth century, the commerce of

Tahiti and its adjacent islands was conducted through Valparaiso.

The House of Brander—which in the sixties became established as the major factor in the commerce of the islands—had a line of ships carrying cargoes between Papeete and Val paraiso, where transhipment was to and from sailing vessels voyaging around the Horn.

Easter Island was under lease to the House of Brander as a hacienda for stock-raising.

The money of Chile became the medium of exchange and dollar tara) quarter (toata) and real (raera) the customary terms, of value among the island natives.

The coins of Chile carried the effigy of an eagle—its wings outspread —and was named “Moni Manu”, to distinguish it from the silver coinage of many other countries—Greece, Italy, Spam, Mexico and even the anoient Papal States—that circulated in Islands commerce.

After Tahiti and dependencies were ceded to France, the money of France and Moni Manu continued side by side in Islands commerce (at an aver age exchange of two and one-quarter Ghile dollars for five francs), through the first decade of the nineteenth century.

When Chilean money was finally excluded as a medium of exchange by Government decree, the price of food stuffs advanced 225 per cent, over night! Transactions at the market of Papeete had alwavs been based on Moni Manu. Consequently, when Mom Manu was abolished, on a fixed date, the natives calmly demanded a quarter Moni Farani (a franc) for the same weight of fish or vegetables priced at a quarter Moni Manu, the morning before..

Although Chilean money vanished from the market place on'that date, the names of its coins remain. Five francs notes are tara, or dollars; franc pieces are quarters; and fifty centime coins are raera or reals, to the present day.

Rev. H. W. Whyte, formerly of India, has taken up duties with the London Mis sionary Society in Western Samoa. He has replaced Rev. H. S. Perkins, who spent the past nine years in Apia.

Mr. J Bennie, of the N.G. Administra tion s Stores Department. Rabaul, arriv ed in Australia on leave in mid-Febru ary by the “Macdhui”.