Prefer?

Which Do You

The Uturoa of 1910, or the Busy Town of To-day ?

UTUROA is the centre of adminis tration for the Leeward Group of the Society Islands. It is a straggling little town on the north shore of Ra’iatea.

To the northward, beyond a broad ex panse of water— flashing with many colours because of the coral in its shallow depths, and calm because of the barrier reef which surrounds both islands —is the sister island, Tahaa.

Twenty-five miles to the east can be seen the ragged outline of Huahine. At a distance of 20 miles to the west, the high peak of Pora Pora stands in lonely grandeur.

Overshadowing the town, like a grim sentinal, is the extinct volcanic peak, Tapioi. j , Thirty years ago Uturoa was a truly native town. There were, perhaps, half a dozen whites, a Chinese bakery, no hotel, and no rum shops. The sale of alcoholic liquors was forbidden at that time in these outer islands.

The life of the town followed that pathway of tranquility which, in other days, characterised remote Islands com munities. By day the people performed, without hurry, their several vocations— fishing, going into the valley for fe’i, preparing the ahimaa (native oven), sun drying copra and curing vanilla; while the young boys and girls attended school in the thatched school-house adjacent to the big church.

By night, nearly everyone, crowned with flower wreaths, gathered about the village green to watch the young folk dance to haunting native tunes, played on mouth-organs, or sat about the long house, where the district chorus prac tised for the Bastile Day celebration or some native festival. .

One such occasion was the state visit of the daughter of a high chief of a dis tant island, who came to Uturoa with a numerous retinue of dancers and singers.

Representatives from all the islands of the Leeward Group came to do her honour, and ceremonies of long ago were revived in all their quaint splendour.

On Sunday, everyone went to church.

There was no compulsion—as cynical writers would have us believe. Young and old went because they liked to listen to eloquent speaking, and to sing the beautiful old hymn tunes, which, like so many other beautiful things, have since passed into disuse.

Uturoa, in those days, seemed the abode of tranquil happiness.

With the passing of the years the calm Uturoa of old has retreated before the steady invasion of modern ideas, and it has become a very up-to-date com munity, with electric lights, motor cars, shops, and a cinema theatre.

Whether it still possesses the peace of mind and happiness we saw there in the early years of the century —we do not know. —A.C.R.

Trainee David Aidney, of Suva, who was one of the first Fiji recruits to go overseas for service with the RAF has been successful in gaining his pilot s “wings”.

The title of “Bataillon du Corps Ex peditionnaire Francais du Pacifique given to the contingent of volunteers from New Hebrides, New Caledonia and French Oceania, now has been altered to “2eme Brigade Division Legere des Forces Francaises Libres du Pacifique .