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p. 60 · Read in the full issue
Tahiti
But European Visitors Not Wanted
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete, Jan. 12.
WE are informed that the Union Steamship Company of NZ is put ting freight steamers on the San Francisco-Papeete-New Zealand route, so that we shall have, approximately, a monthly service. There will be no pas senger accommodation on these steamers.
Even if passengers were carried to Tahiti, there would be no place for them to lodge when they arrived. The hous ing shortage is so acute that local people, whose leases are about to expire, are in great difficulty as to where they will find new abiding-places.
Moreover, no person is permitted to tarry on Tahiti, except by special per mission of the Governor. No foreigner is allowed to buy land in the Colony.
The outer islands are closed absolutely against visit or settlement by anyone— except actual natives of the several islands so interdicted. rE younger generation of Polynesians in French Oceania are modern, sophisticated, well educated (most of them speak French and English), and, as full citizens of France, they are politic ally conscious. They look with critical eyes on every newcomer and judge him (or her) with uncanny accuracy. Readers of crack-pot South Sea literature should note that the Tahitian word for a white person is “papaa”—which means, “a crab.” The while visitor is, in every case, regarded as a crab (crawling ashore from the sea), until he proves himself (or herself) worthy to rank as a mem ber of the human race.
An expedition to the early morning market would establish, beyond cavil, that the old story of cheap provender in the South Seas is a myth. This concerns the foodstuff of the Islands. The average visitor to the Islands derives most of his sustenance from tins, bearing enticing labels, imported expensively from far countries.