Souvenirs Boom

New Industry in Central Pacific

From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga, July 27.

ISLANDS shell necklaces, which were so popular in Australia and New Zealand recently, are again in great demand.

The fashion has now extended to Fiji and other Pacific islands, and to the United States, which provide a practic ally insatiable market. The manufacture of cheap jewellery being now blacklisted in all the warring countries, the femi nine desire for titivation must needs be satisfied with simple shell necklaces and the like. Those of better quality, more over, are extremely varied and pretty The commercial manufacture of neck lets has now spread from Rarotonga to other islands in the Lower Cook Group, and there is keen competition among local buyers for the trade. The prices paid to the women and children who per form the work average out at about 7/a dozen of 30-inch necklets. Considering that these, usually re-strung on arrival, fetch anything from 2/6 to 7/6 each at their destination, it appears that the struggling middlemen still manage to keep body and soul together.

Another branch of the souvenir indus try enjoying a temporary boom is the production of hula skirts. These are made from the bark of the “au” tree (Tahitian “purau”—Samoan “fau”). The bark is first stripped from the young shoots of the tree, which grows prolific ally in the mountain valleys; then this is pinned by stones in a mountain stream, or the sea, for a week, finally being sun-dried, woven and coloured to make a genuine Islands hula-skirt, of fine texture and brilliant colouring. The “beach” price, which before the war was 2/6 apiece, has now risen to 5/-, with a probable further increase.

Pretty pearl-shell ornaments and brooches, depicting fish, palm-trees or “tiare Maori,” are being turned out by Mr. R. Powell, a local craftsman, in a small factory at Avarua. These are of high quality and sell readily at about 9/- each.

All of the articles mentioned are of entirely native design and are genuine Islands products. Consequently, they are not vulgar or bizarre, for the Maori is instinctively artistic in his work.

It seems likely that the export of pearl shell from Penrhyn and other lagoons will again be resumed. The trade which, together with pearls, was worth over £lO,OOO to Penrhyn alone in 1926, col lapsed late in the twenties.

There is no doubt that Rarotonga and other islands are being tided over a diffi cult period by these industries. The export of fruit since the hurricane of March last has been negligible.

But a note of warning would be timely.

The export of souvenirs is a mushroom industry and will die almost as quickly as it grew. It would be disastrous to the natives’ welfare if food and fruit plan tations were allowed to be neglected, for less dependable work.

Captain C. E. Traise, formerly of the AUSN Company, and well known to New Guinea and Papuan people, died recently in Brisbane, aged 79. He was one of the few survivors of the “Quetta” wreck which occurred in Torres Strait in 189 o!

He swam for four hours before being

picked up.