Famine and Fleas
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent
T_ . Mangaia, Dec. 1.
HE hurricane of January, 1944, brought us 10 months’ semi-starvation, which even now is not, fully remedied We are short of every sort of food—other things we have in plenty—the things that we don’t want!
After the cyclone there was a plague of vere Tinito (Chinese centipedes—a harm less variety). Now, Pulex Irritans—and never was v an insect better-named!—is our bane, driving the hut-dwellers almost crazy. These fleas are in the sand floors of the cliff-village shacks, and by day they come only singly—or, at the worst, corporal’s squads. But at night—Aue- To-e!—battalions arrive. We just lie awake and—think!
Mangaians, however, are a people who count their blessings. So far. not a frog has appeared in the taro-swamps, and the water remains water. . Two well-known New Caledonians visit ing Australia in December were M. Josenh Danueloen and M. Henri Lafleur.. M Danueloen has a hotel at La Foa on the western coast. It is a famous fishing re sort. M. Lefleur has mining interests in the Colony.