Atolls With a New

Value The Tokelau, or Union Group

AS various specks of islands, some uninhabited, hitherto neglected, are now considered as having value as filling stations for aerial services, or strategic points in time of war, it is worth noting that New Zealand controls three equatorial atolls, consisting of 102 islets,, almost on the track of the sea route from Auckland to Vancouver.

They have a total area of seven square miles, and are known as the Tokelau (or Union) Group, and comprise Faka ofo, of 700 acres, 270 miles from Apia (Samoa); Nukunono, 1372 acres, 42 miles from Fakaofo; and Atafu, 603 acres, 53 miles from Nukunono. There are actually four atolls in the Group; but the fourth, Swain’s Island, belongs to the United States. It is about 170 miles from Apia.

The Tokelau Group, for many years, was included in most maps as in the British zone, but it was practically un governed and rarely seen by officials.

But in 1916 the Tokelauans (who then numbered nearly 1000) decided to cede the group to Great Britain; and, for the nine years, to October 1, 1925, they were governed as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, through the District Officer at Funafuti.

At the request of the British Govern ment, the New Zealand Government took over the control of the Group, from October, 1925, as part of the Administration of Western Samoa.

Local government is wholly in the hands of natives, specially appointed by the Administrator. These comprise a faipule and magistrate (who acts as chief representative of the Government), a mayor of villages, clerk and wireless operator, chief of police, three police men, a native medical practitioner, a wardress, and a nurse. In the first year of New Zealand’s administration, the total salaries of these officials amounted to £B5. For the year 1936-37 the salary list aggregated £276. In that first year, also, the revenue was £ll6O and the ex penditure £7lO. Towards this fine re cord the natives contributed consider ably by way of taxation in the form of copra. The copra tax in the 1936-37 season realised £ll7. This is the only tax the natives have to pay. The Group’s last budget (1936-37) disclosed a credit balance of £124.

Copra is the only exportable product, for only two varieties of banana will grow, owing to lack of humus in the soil, and these do not always produce sufficient fruit for the natives’ own use.

Population Increasing

THE population in 1926 was 1033, ex cluding about 100 who were absent on adjacent islands, and 25 girls at school in Samoa. The last census, in November, 1936, shows that, since, there has been an increase of 170.

Communication between the Group and Apia was provided by means of the Burns, Philp vessel “Makoa”, but she was wrecked in July, 1937; and, since then, there have been only occasional visits from small cutters out of Samoa.

The warship “Achilles” called at Nuku nono in August of last year. However, the New Zealand Government is pro viding a new vessel, in June or July, 1940. A wireless station keeps this remote community in touch with other places.

The Tokelaus are out of the usual track of hurricanes, but when these do diverge to the eastward, Nukunono gets more than its share. The tropic gales, from their lair in the Kuriles, sweep fiercely southward across the Tropic of Cancer, gathering force as they tear through the Marshall, Caroline and Gilbert groups, their easterly slant in creasing till, with hot, tempestuous blasts, they lash to foam the sea around the reef-girdled Tokelaus, and spatter their spent gusts across Samoa and Tonga.

A Mystery Lake

IN the cabin of a “blackbirding” schooner, lying in Levuka Harbour one night, the skipper, who .had just returned from a three-months’ cruise, told of a visit to the Tokelaus.

Listening to the tales of old men on the beach, he heard a story of a lake that had existed in Nukunono many years previously. Tree-fringed and un fathomable, its level never varied throughout the year, though torrential rains fed it constantly. Not more than 50 yards across, and almost a perfect circle, its surface was seldom ruffled by the vagrant winds that crooned through the tree-tops; but, in its centre, tiny waves circled so swiftly that they re sembled tiers of seats round a stadium.

The lake was seldom without its freight of coconuts and branches that had fallen from the overhanging trees.

These might drift for days, or weeks, on the quiet water along the shore of the lake; but, inevitably, they were drawn within the circle of the outspreading ripples, and then their voyaging became more ordered. Slowly at first, but gain ing impetus with their near approach to the central spirals, the forest jetsam circled closer and closer to the vortex.

The end was then near. Three or four revolutions of the maelstrom, and then —they were gone.

Days later, mariners out of sight of land could view the strange spectacle

of tropic products drifting in an un usual setting. None knew the secret locked safely in Nukunono’s bosom.

The tradition has it that unfaithful wives and husbands were cast into this lake. There was no appeal from such

a sentence.-

T.D.G.

Mr. Satya N. Sabharwal, whose ad dress is: c/o Mr. B. R. Sabharwal, Nam oli, Lautoka, Fiji, writes: “I would like to correspond with pen friends in the British Colonies and other countries, who who may be interested in stamp collecting, photography, etc.”