Overseas Visitors

Tahiti Getting Ready To Welcome

By M. Jay, President, Syndicate d’Initiative de Tahiti

THE numerous criticisms of Tahiti made by your correspondent in the last few months require an answer.

We are thankful to Mr. Mackinlay, of Sydney, who so generously took up the defence of Tahiti “which he does not know,” says he, “but whe're things cannot be as bad as the correspondent says.”

We first must deny the statements you have made, that “Tahiti is closed” and “European visitors are not wanted.”

Tahiti, on the contrary, is doing its best to be ready for the tourists. But all the plans decided on cannot be given just now, from sheer lack of facilities.

Nevertheless, your correspondent ought to have said something about our en larged wharf and our. new custom-house with its large hall for the reception of passengers. He ought to have mentioned all the work done for the improvement of the roads, which in .some places are cut into the rocks along the sea—work in which the Navy took an active part.

Your correspondent should have made a point of giving a detailed report about the new tourist attraction of Tahiti; The Mountain resort.

This mountain station has been the work of the Army, under the command of Colonel Bouillon, while preparing de fences for an enemy who never came.

The soldiers also constructed for peace time.

About five miles of mountain road have been built, giving access to a station 2,200 ft. high, where visitors can rent very comfortable bungalows and have their meals at a restaurant. From the dining room and its terrace, visitors can enjoy a splendid view over Papeete and its surroundings.

Leaving this station, a good path leads to one of the summits of the island (6,773 ft.) from which the sightseer com

mands an unforgettable panorama over Tahiti and the surrounding islands.

This is an exceptional attraction for the tourist in Tahiti who, from now, will be able to go easily and with the neces sary comfort to admire the natural beauties,,of inland Tahiti.

But, of all this, there is not a word in your correspondent’s reports. He satisfies himself by telling us that Tahiti population is “hostile” to foreigners; that Tahitians organise “passive resistance” against white people; and he produces, as a proof, the fact .that Tahitians name tourists by a word “which in their language designates a crab.”

WE wonder how your correspondent could have been so badly mistaken.

Tahitians give the utmost impor tance to pronunciation. They do not care much about spelling—writing being for them a very recent innovation introduced by white people—as long as words have different pronunciations, they are, for the natives, as different as day and night.

An example will make this clear. The word “parau” means “oyster shell.” The same word,, slightly differently pro nounced, means “speech.” “Papaa” means “crab.” With a slight difference in pronunciation, it means “stranger.”

The stranger has no more connection with “crab” than the oyster has with “speech.”

The flexibility of Tahitians’ voice and the extreme sensitivity of their ear are well known, hence the charm of their songs. The slightest change of pronun ciation has for Tahitians a tremendous importance. A word slightly mispro nounced loses all its meaning or gives place to confusion —and in both cases to endless laughs.

Even Tahitian women have not escaped our gallant criticism. The tourist is warned about the big deception waiting for him as far as nice womanly profiles are concerned. “A gigantic waistline soon spells death to romance.”

If it is true, generally speaking, that Tahitian women, upon ageing, have a strong tendency to outpass the canon of sheer beauty, is there any reason for refusing to look at and denying admira tion to those charming Tahitian girls, graceful and slender as young banana sprouts?

If we know that a flower will soon fade, is there any argument against our en joying its beauty, when in early bloom?

If “a column of exploring red ants” happens to camp at your quarters, is there any obligation for you to denounce the beauty of surrounding nature? mAHITI is a very quiet country. There 1 are a few trucks bringing, every morning, passengers and goods to the market of Papeete. But even those useful trucks have been incriminated, by your journal. No sufficient excuse has been found for them in their being so picturesque, with their crowded and smiling passengers (twice as many as there should be) under a roof supporting an enormous load of all kinds of food: fei, fish, pigs, fowls, baskets of vegetables and a rich variety of man-made products, from bicycles to canoes.

The passengers are cleanly dressed, their hair shining with “monoi.” Let us clearly understand that they intend this day to be a feast-day, as was yes terday, and as will be to-morrow. They are always ready to laugh at the first opportunity along the road. If they knew

that, while passing by, they have just “spoiled the sleep” of your correspondent, their laugh would momentarily cover the noise of “the horn and free exhaust” —a good-humoured laugh, meaning no offence. . . .

The war held many people in Tahiti longer than they intended to stay. So there is nothing really surprising if to-day these persons show some eagerness to rejoin their countries and families. Is this sufficient for the correspondent to describe them as disillusioned tourists “. . . so eager to get away to any place which would not be a South Sea island?”

Tahiti is a country where optimism is the rule. Its race is young and careless, even to childishness. But do not be mistaken. These children possess a striking art of living, and a natural gaiety and friendliness which make them a people eminently sociable, hospitable and in every respect amiable.

To understand Tahiti rightly and dis cuss it without bias you must possess in yourself some youthfulness of heart.