Tropicalities

GERMAN bombers in England have removed a link with the Pacific.

The old manor house in Kent, where Admiral William Bligh, of “Bounty” mutiny fame, spent the last years of his life, has been destroyed by Nazi airmen.

It was there, too, that his widow lived.

No one will regret this wanton destruc tion more than Dr. George Mackaness, of Sydney, the Australian historian who wrote the account of Bligh’s life. Though he never saw the house, he had been in touch with its last occupants.—“Eriki”. ♦ rIS happened some decades ago, when South Taveuni (Fiji) was a sugar growing district, and Solomon Is landers were brought in as labourers.

One Sunday, the planter met a smart Solomon Islands boy. resplendent in white, returning from the native church, in the nearby Fijian village. The black lad was nearly choking with mirth.

“What you laughing at?” demanded the

planter.

“Oh, boss, them Fijians plurry fools” said the Solomon Islander. “They pray to God, and they sing to God, and they do it in their talk. They think God he unnerstand Fijian, and God he no unner stand Fijian at all.”—R. * AN example of how socialism works is supplied by New Zealand. New Zealand has a socialist government, and New Zealanders like pineapples. NZ cannot grow pineapples—they have to be imported from Australia, Fiji, Tonga, or Cook Islands. The NZ Government will not allow private enterprise to handle this trade—it must be controlled by the Minister for Marketing.

In July, 1940. the Department bought pineapples in Sydney at 10/- per case, and sold them to NZ retailers, in an empty market, at 30/- per case. The Department said it was proper that the State should have all the profit from an empty market. The real effect was that only rich people could buy pineapples.

The retailers asked the Minister for per

mission to import, saying they could get the fruit to the consumers at half the price. He refused. Last October, the NZ Department bought pineapples in Tonga at 6/- f.o.b. They were sold to Auckland retailers at 17/- per case, and, a little later, when the Christmas demand started, the price per case was raised to 25/-, on the ground that the fruit was in short supply.

Only plutocrats and bureaucrats eat pineapples in NZ —while the fruit grows like weeds in the tropical islands, a couple of thousand miles away.

OFFICIAL report of debates at the session of New Guinea Legislative Council, held in Rabaul on April 22 and 23, and containing some valuable material presented by the Non-official Members, reached us on July 21—three months after the debate. They certainly move fast in that Territory! • RESIDENTS of Papua will be inter ested to know that, according to an article by John Digby in the “Sun day Times”, of Perth, WA, Papua is part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. It is also announced that an A.RM.’s expedition recently clashed with hostile natives; that two tribes indulged in a pitched battle, and a police patrol which tried to interfere was massacred.

The gifted writer also states that “active volcanoes send pyres of smoke into the brooding atmosphere, hanging unmistakable signposts in the sky for the benefit of travellers. Earthquakes are frequent.” There must have been a frightful kick in the liquor that night, when Mr. Digby discovered volcanoes and earthauakes in Papua.

Mr. Digby says that cannibalism is still a regular practice in the Territory and that the carcases of victims are cut up into pieces and wrapped in taro leaves and “subsequently cooked upon heated stones, or, in some cases, when the tribe is sated with roasts, boiled in

water.” He adds; “Even the most incor rigible Papuan cannibal rarely eats the flesh of a white man, because ‘white man smell bad’.”

This is typical of the indescribable tripe which some writers produce pre sumably as informative articles about the Islands and —what is worse —which is seriously printed by newspapers with a large circulation.

rE lengthy stay of Alain Gerbault, author and ex-tennis champion, in New Guinea waters, has been intriguing the local residents. The Frenchman, who is generally regarded as rather unapproachable to Europeans (though to the Polynesians he has ever been a friend), met an Australian visitor the other day and invited him out to his sailing boat. He revealed that, during his wanderings in Polynesia, he had col lected certain genealogies which, he said, certain museums would like to possess.

“Gerbault had a very fine collection of books, many of them in tapa bindings,” says the visitor, “and I found him ever ready to talk on his special topic—the origin of the Polynesians.”

But to most people at Port Moresby, Gerbault is regarded as “the French man, and rather a queer bird”. He is said to spend hours in the small canvas boat which he carries on his yacht, lying

there clad only in a pareu and appar ently lost in thought. Occasionally, he will give the water a flip with his paddle, drift for a few minutes, and then flip it again. The author kindly autographed a copy of one of his books which his visitor happened to have with him. On glancing at the inscription the latter found it was in Maori!—“Vakatini”. « IN this day and age, the Polynesian is a less adventurous seafarer than his forefathers, who in small sailing canoes criss-crossed the warm waters of the Pacific on inter-island voyages. It was not uncommon for natives to sail away from one island bound for a nearby atoll and never be heard of again—that has always been one of the hazards of men against the sea. But to-day it is not entirely his own fault that he is less venturesome for, in recent years, reckless voyaging has been frowned upon by the powers that be and a native must make adequate provision for seagoing emergencies if he wishes to visit another island.

In the Gilbert and Ellice Group, Cen tral Pacific, for instance, a native must first obtain a certificate from the village headman to the effect that his canoe has been personally inspected, is seaworthy in every respect, and properly equipped with sails, paddles, steer-oar and other serviceable gear; that there is a suffi cient crew of experienced seamen, one an efficient navigator; and that ample reserves of food and water are carried.

Woe betide any inter-island voyager without a certificate, for the Native Government Ordinance, recently issued by the Western Pacific High Commission, prescribes as penalty imprisonment up to six months. * HERE is an interesting prophecy, written by a famous poet:— The time will come when thou sfialt lift thine eyes To watch a long-drawn battle in the skies, While aged peasants, too amazed for words.

Stare at the flying feet of wondrous birds.

England, so long the mistress of the sea, Where winds and waves confess her sovereignty, Her ancient triumphs yet shall bow on high And reign the sovereign of the conquered sky.

Incredible as it may seem, those lines were written 166 years ago (in 1775) by the English poet, Thomas Gray, whose “Eleey written in a Country Church yard” is so well known.

A YANKEE Doctor in Paradise”, the autobiography telling of the life and work of Dr. Sylvester M. Lam bert, for 20 years Rockefeller Foundation representative in the South Pacific, has gained “best-seller” sales and been accorded flattering reviews throughout the United States, the doctor’s home land. We learn that an English edition is to be published in London before Christmas by J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., and that then, probably, the book will be on sale in Australia, it was reviewed in the “PIM” in June. Dr. Lambert, who was in Fiji on a brief visit in June, has now returned to his home at Walnut Creek, California. *

An Islands Note

FOR the yam I don’t care a damn!

I’d hate ter Be without a pertater.—R.