Morobe's Spitfire

From Our Own Correspondent WAU, March 1.

THE fund to purchase a Spitfire Fighter plane, on behalf of the Morobe district of New Guinea is now £2824, made up thus: Bulolo, £1400; Wau. £871; Edie Creek. £450; Lae, £lO3.

Watut district’s £lOO is included in Wau.

It is proposed to send £2500 to England at once as an earnest of Morobe’s inten tion to purchase the plane soon. Clubs have been formed among all the trading companies, gold companies, Administra tion and other groups, to raise a definite sum each month, apart from any special means of raising money. The European hospital’s nursing staff raised no less than £7l in one afternoon.

The health of Judge H. F. Ayson, Resi dent Commissioner in the Cook Islands, who is in New Zealand on leave, has been causing some anxiety. He may not be able to resume his duties for a con siderable time. Dr. E, P. Ellison, medical superintendent for the Cook Islands (who has acted as Commissioner in the absence of the Judge) was due to go to New Zealand on leave in February.

THE “perfumes of Araby”, whether imported or manufactured locally, always have had an irresistible appeal for the Polynesians.

The volume of scent and hair lotions imported into the Cook Islands, soon after the advent of Colonel Gudgeon as British Resident in Rarotonga in the late nineties, assumed such proportions that he ordered an investigation. He found that natives in the outer islands had found a new use for them. They had discovered that several well-known brands of perfumery, assisted by a liberal addition of bay rum, provided an excel lent substitute for bush-beer. The fer mentation of oranges had been aban doned, and “scent parties” were so popu lar that Colonel Gudgeon had to ask the then Prime Minister of NZ, the late R.

J. Seddon, to rush legislation through the New Zealand Parliament to control the entry of such commodities into the Cook Group.—“Vakatini”.