Housing Shortage In
p. 19 · Read in the full issue
French Oceania
Prom Our Own Correspondent Papeete, August 20.
RA’IVAVAE’s sister island, Tupuai, which lies astride the Tropic of Cap ricorn. has a housing shortage too But the Tupuai people are solving the material difficulty by hewing slabs of coral from the reef, and by burning coral-heads from the lagoon in great kilns so as to get lime.
A Tupuai lady, who has recently visited her native island, told me, with indignation, that many of the finest iron wood trees had been cut down to stoke these kilns.
At Tahiti, also, the housing problem is very troublesome —as, indeed, in all parts of the world. The prospect of adequate supplies of lumber seems remote. The termite which came, as a passenger, with a cargo of cheap, sappy timbers from the States —has worked diligently.