Coconut Islands

Maxwell Lease Over Three Atolls Has Expired

IT was announced in the Western Pacific High Commission “Gazette,” of June 1, that the licence to occupy Flint, Caroline and Vostock Islands, which was granted to Messrs. S. R. Maxwell & Co., Ltd., of Auckland and Tahiti, by an Indenture dated January 7, 1911, has ter minated with effect from June 1, 1943; and, from that date, all rights and inter ests of the company in those islands has ceased.

Flint Island is a small, isolated island to the north of Tahiti. It is without indigenous inhabitants. It is a flat atoll, three miles long and half a mile broad, is well wooded, and is surrounded by a reef, through which a passage has been blasted. The island was originally leased from the High Commission of the West ern Pacific by J. T. Arundel &' Co.; later, it was held by S. R. Maxwell & Co., whose plantations there contained about 30,000 coconut trees. In normal times, a white manager and about 30 natives worked the plantations, and they were visited about four times a year by a schooner from Tahiti.

Vostock Island is slightly north-west of Flint; Caroline Island is to the north east; all three cluster around 10 degrees S. Latitude, and 150 degrees W. Longi tude. Vostock and Caroline are small,

low-lying islands and both were occupied by S. R. Maxwell & Co., Ltd., as coconut plantations.

Mr. Bert Mann and Mr. C. Hellesoe, who have been on active service, have been invalided to their homes in Western Samoa.