Tahiti—After 8

Years

Marc T. Greene's Impressions

HAVING returned after eight years, I feel the urge to make a few com ments on what I find.

The thing that surprises me most is to find Tahiti, and especially Papeete, so lively and active—far more so than when I was here before, despite the discon tinuance of the mail boats. This is, of course, partly due to the fact that the European residents, especially British and Americans, have greatly increased in numbers. You see new houses, mainly bungalows along the various beaches, everywhere; and, on boat days, Papeete offers you a really fascinating cosmopo litan picture. , The foreign colony is certainly the most extraordinary one of its kind in the world. Its nucleus and foundation is, of course, the group of real gentlemen of Tahiti. It is not necessary to mention them specifically, nor would that at all please them. Some have acquired fame and fortune since I was here before; and that is almost as much satisfaction to their friends as it is to them. Others came here, originally, possessed of means which have been worthily used. Others had neither fame nor fortune, but are of the character that is of equal rich ness.

There is, unfortunately, another group.

They were lured here, in the main, by journalistic liars who publish, far and wide, that once in Tahiti all your prob lems of whatever nature are immediately solved, that you can live on next to no thing, and at once acquire a companion of the opposite sex who will satisfy every mortal need, from laundering to the most exacting demands for “romance”.

These writers, one of whom was recent ly refused readmission to the colony— and very properly—lay a heavy burden upon a much-enduring place. They send here a bunch of idlers, wasters, refugees from one thing and another, libertines, shirkers and bearded and straggly-locked indeterminates, who are an economic, so cial and moral menace. The French are governing and protecting the colony effi ciently and judiciously, but it is impossible to keep out all undesirables.

HOWEVER, to me, Tahiti is as delight ful as ever, and it is quite the pleasure to be back that I have been thinking it would be all this time.

The scenic and climatic charm is, of course, unaltered. The island peoples are contented, and there is practically no poverty. It is necessary, and a pleas ure. to commend the French for the tact and the tolerance of their rule. And I am not, as you are aware, in the habit of waxing enthusiastic about colonial ad ministrations anywhere. Never, in my time here, has the town itself been bet ter policed, been cleaner or more attrac tive generally, than under the admirable control of Mayor George Bambridge.

It is no doubt true that the lovable, kindly-dispositioned Tahitians are easier to deal with than such as the truculent Samoans. But the difference between Papeete, with its blend of almost every European race, natives, half-castes, and what-have-you from all over the world, is in its rarely-marred orderliness and friendly atmosphere a marked contrast to Apia, with its unpleasant incidents of one kind and another.

There is no doubt at all that Tahiti

is unique and, as I am more than ever convinced, the best place in the world to live in. But if anybody comes here expecting to enjoy its delights on less than an income that would support them in reasonable economic security anywhere in the world, they are in for a sorry dis illusionment, and the authorities of the colony for more annoyances—MAßC T.

Greene. 28/6/’39.

A pretty wedding was celebrated at the Ba Catholic Church, Fiji, on July 22 when Mr. Rupert Erry, of Suva, married Miss Elsie Campbell, of Ba. Over 200 guests at tended the reception at the home of Mrs.

Henry Robinson and heard the happy couple and their parents’ families praised in eulogistic terms by the speakers, in cluding Hon. R. R. Ragg, member for the Northern Division.

A double wedding was celebrated at the Lutheran Mission’s Heldsbach Church, Finschhafen, T.N.G., recently, when Rev.

Adolph Wagner, of Heldsbach, married Miss Thilde Kern and Rev. Hans Wagner, of Ulap, married Miss Elizabeth Kem. The brides were sisters and the bridegrooms cousins.