Paper Substitute

mHE paper-mulberry tree, which is X found on many of the South Sea Islands, has been put to a new use.

Normally the bark of the tree is made into tapa by the islanders who, until the arrival of European traders, had no other cloth. The method of preparation, which is carried out by women and girls, is to beat the raw product into strips, which are soaked in water, dried and joined together with the gum of the breadfruit tree. Stencilled designs of various colours are often added.

A resident of one of the Pacific groups told the New Zealand “Herald” that, before he left the islands large quanti ties of the bark of the paper-mulberry were being dried and exported to the United Kingdom to be used in the manu facture of paper.

Mr. W. E. Donevan, Chief Clerk of the Treasury, Fiji, was appointed to act temporarily as Deputy-Treasurer and Accountant-General in August, in the absence of Mr. A. R. W. Robertson.

Mr. H. M. W. Richardson, of the Mala yan Civil Service, who was seconded to the Fiji Government to act as Adviser on Air Raid Precautions, has been doing good work in the Colony. He has been getting large audiences together and giv ing useful lectures, describing the con ditions with which the people of Fiji would have to cope in the event of an air raid. The wisdom of this kind of preparation is apparent, as Fiji would be exposed to enemy attack in the event of the Allies’ defences giving way. m the Solomons, or further west.