"Bath-Tub Gardens"

Development of Lite on Pacific Island Airports

THE European communities, including hotel staffs, which have been estab lished on a number of Pacific Islands where seaplane bases have been estab lished by Pan American Airways, require fresh vegetables of European varieties; and, as these islands are merely barren sandbanks, it seemed as if the answer was the regular importation of fresh vegetables by the air-liners.

But science has stepped in. Wake Island now has a “hydroponicum"; and the other islands are likely to have hydro ponica also. A hydroponicum is a system by which vegetables may be grown in a tank of water which has been chemically treated.

At Wake Island, the hydroponicum is 70 feet long by 14 feet wide—a big. shallow, concrete tank. About 30 varieties of vegetables are being grown in fresh water, with amazing success. Thirty pounds of tomatoes are gathered each week. Lima beans and cucumbers grow prolifically.

Motors are used to circulate the water constantly about the roots of the plants containing the life-supporting chemicals.

The same solution is used for all varie ties of plants, and the man in charge checks the measure of acidity or alka linity every day—he uses colour indicators and keeps the solution slightly acid.

Nutritional salts are added every two or three days—iron every week or two as required, the need for iron being indicated by the colour of the new leaves —and micro-elements (elements needed in minute amounts) are added about every three weeks.

The hydroponicum is colloquially known as "the bath-tub garden”.

Mrs. R. A. Gale, of Ba. Fiji, whose death occurred in November, had been a resident of the Colony for many years, and as Nurse Dora Kennedy, of Sydney, she was the first matron appointed to the Rarawai Hospital. She was unre mitting in good works, and took a par ticular interest in the Ba Red Cross, of which she was secretary for some years.