Those "Savage" Samoans I
pp. 23-24 · Read in the full issue
rE people of Samoa will be astonished to learn how savage they are. An American artist, Mr. Edward Dair. is in Sydney, at present, “working on a book”. He accompanied the ill-starred Fahnestock expedition to various Terri tories (The expedition’s yacht was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef.). A Sydney interviewer makes Mr. Dair say this: — “In Samoa, Mr. Dair wanted to paint a portrait of a particularly lovely Samoan girl, Vaivasa. But before he was allowed, he (and other men members of the crew of the Director II) had to submit to a painful initiation ceremony and become honorary members of her tribe.
“It was a nerve-racking business al together,” said Mr. Dair. “Drums were beating, men were chanting, others were making kava, and the whole ritual was carried out with a ceremony and serious ness that got under your skin. The tattooing—which is done with a shark’s
tooth —was so painful that we had to be held down on the ground. Natives have their entire legs tattooed as part of the ceremony. We were treated lightly, but what they did do was bad enough!”
Mr. Dair apparently was talking about Samoa, and not the Solomons or New Guinea. These travellers!
Miss Shirley Alice Coles, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Coles, of Namo sau. was married to Mr. John Graeme Berry, of Rarawai, in Fiji on February 15.
Mr. R, F. Pickering, who was manager in Fiji for the Bank of NSW for several years, has taken up an appointment at the Townsville, Queensland, branch.
Mr. L. D. Gilpin died at Wau, New Guinea, recently. He had been on the Morobe goldfields as a contractor for several months, and a short time ago sustained a leg injury which commenced a series of illnesses culminating in his death.
Miss Ruth Turnbull, daughter of Mr.
A. C. Turnbull (Acting Administrator of Western Samoa), and Mrs. Turnbull, returned to New Zealand in February, ents*at P VauSnaf “ y Mr. A. Bakker has retired from the position of general manager in Australia of the Royal Navigation Co. Ltd., which runs the KPM steamer service in the Western Pacific, Royal Netherlands Indies’ Airways Ltd. (KNILM), and the Holland-Australia Line. He will leave for London next month to take up an appointment with the Netherlands Shipping and Trading Committee, the organisation formed to take over control of all Dutch vessels which sailed into British ports after the Nazi invasion of Holland. Mr Bakker has been succeeded by Mr. N. D.
Lammers, who has been assistant general manager of the Royal Packet Navigation Co. for some years.