"Bernice" Delivers Mormons and Returns

Returns to Tahiti

DURING the centuries, when the great island confederation of Central Poly nesia was in being, direct communi cation between Hawaii and the southern islands was frequent.

Priests and warriors and scholars from the north came to attend the august festivals of the gods at Opoa. High chiefs of the south went to the northern islands on visits of ceremony.

When the confederation violently broke up, in the fourteenth century, all such voyages ceased. Even since the coming of Europeans into the Pacific, direct voyages between the Tahitian and Hawaiian is lands have been of very rare occurence.

The schooner “Bernice” (Captain Alex ander Mervin), of Tahiti, completed such a voyage early in January. The vessel was chartered to transport the members of the Mormon Mission from Tahiti to Honolulu.

Mr. Charles Brown (the owner of the vessel), Mrs. Brown, several nieces, and Madame Mervin were in the party. The company were most kindly received by the people of Honolulu. They remained several days, touring Oahu, and viewing the wonders of the “crossroads of the Pacific”. One excursion was by aeroplane, and from aloft they could see the mighty USA battle-fleet anchored in Pearl Har bour.

The “Bernice” returned to Papeete, early in January, by way of the Marquesas Islands.

Mr. W. W. Pearce, accountant for the Methodist Mission at Rabaul, New Guinea, is at present in Tasmania on leave.