Settle In
p. 15 · Read in the full issue
Ocean Islanders Settle In On Rabi Island But Will Experiment Meet With Success?
Suva, May 20.
THE transplanting of „ 703 Banabans and 300 Gilbertese from their former home on Ocean Island to Rabi has now been completed. (Rabi is a fertile island in the Fijian Group which was purchased for the Banabans.) The community is in the process of settling down in its new environment, but not without making many readjust ments. Many of the old men, who were born and lived all their lives (up until the Jap occupation) on Ocean, still hanker for that barren, but in their eyes, desirable, hunk of phosphatic rock. Con sequently the community is not at present pulling together as successfully as the optimists would have us believe.
Much money has been spent on the trans fer and in creating a model South Seas community; it is hoped that the Islanders will be able to adapt themselves, in time, to their changed circumstances.
The whole experiment is being watched with interest. History shows us that the transplantation of whole Pacific com munities (even when it is to more fertile and more pleasant surroundings) is not always attended with success.
Whatever spontaneous migrations the Pacific Islander may have made in the past, he has in modern times shown a deep-rooted reluctance to leave forever the island of his birth, no matter how overcrowded and unproductive it might be.
Major d. g. Kennedy, of the Western Pacific High Commission, supervised the transfer and now is District Officer in Rabi. He is assisted in local government by the 10 members of the Rabi Island Council, seven of whom are elected by the elders of the
153 family groups, and three nominated by the chairman of the committee in consultation with the DO.
The co-operative society which was formed at Ocean Island in 1940 is being continued in Rabi. The co-op. is work ing some of the plantations on the new island, and family groups are leasing and working portions of other plantations.
School is at present held in a large tent; but plans have been made for the erection of a permanent school building, as well as a hospital and permanent-type houses for the Islanders.
There is a NMP in residence. He is assisted by a trained Banaban dresser, another dresser on loan from the G. & E.
Colony, and by a trained Banaban nurse.