Tropicalities

ONE of the things that give the white resident of a Cook Island village to scream, or even to lie down and kick, is the picking-up and later regurgitation of catch-phrases in English always wrongly used, but occasionally to better advantage than the original.

The other day I heard two youthful cavaliers of the latter category preparing for a journey inland to the taro-patches.

They argued as to who should be first to mount; argued again as to which of them should hold the fibre-rope “bridle” and direct the steed’s course, this being a post of prestige.

Timi didn’t like Hori to be coachman, it seemed although Hori was the older brother, he never found the track with out being told whether to turn to the right or left this kind of bad memory is somewhat common here among young gentlemen in no hurry to join Pa for a day’s work in the taro swamps.

They disputed; and at last Timi agreed to let Hori drive, while he rode pillion, like Queen Anne taking the air.

“But py korry, vou go t’e way I say,” said Timi. “You got t’e prurry backside

dtriver behind you!”

Eti.

A SHIPMENT of electric torches re cently found its way to our Island group. The items were made of the same material as a meat-can, and spray painted with various inartistic hues of red, green, etc. Some of the torches had a noticeable bend in them, and others sported screw-ends that wouldn’t stay on if a battery was inserted in the shoot lamp. the pressure-spring being too long, and too strong for the threads to hold the end in place.

“Japanese muck!” said the intending buyer, and wondered how this remnant of a pre-war stock came to be offered for sale, and that at no low price, either.

The roughly-made torches, investigated more closely, were found to be of Austra lian make; and were that country’s bid for the market in cheap electric goods that, prior to 1939, was practically a monopoly of Hongkong, whose factories turned out, at amazingly low prices, a splendidly-nickelled torch, of superior quality, at five shillings, complete. So far, that Chinese competition has not been resumed; but when it is, Aussie’s “rough stuff” is not likely to find a market in Cl, unless quality and appearance are greatly improved!

NZ and Australian batteries have no superior. Surely those countries could do

better with the torch itself.-

Tukapa

Koko.

NO one can tell me Colonel Murray, Administrator of New Guinea, does n’t believe in seeing things for him self. Our ship recently took him to Bougainville to check up on reports of starvation and disease. I accompanied him on all his inspections, which weren’t confined to easily-accessible coastal vil lages. In one district south of Kieta tuberculosis had been reported among the hill tribes. The Administrator, his ADC. the Director of Public Health, Dr.

Gunther, and myself staggered and clawed our way up a 4,000-foot mountain through great weeping rain-forests. Finally, at

the cloud-top village, the Administrator, wet through and muddied, put on his sodden coat, pulled his trousers from his socks and! marched in as though he’d come from across the road. We found one case of TB in the entire area, and this lad and a sickly baby were carried back to the ship for treatment in one of the half-dozen native hospitals on the island. A man Murray’s age who’d under take that pull to inspect a native village commands my respect. When we left him at Torokina he was off on a four-day trek inland. Asking if I could quote him on the natives’ condition they were as well-fed as I— he answered “No. I have n’t seen all the inland tribes yet.”—By “Macnell” in Sydney Bulletin. ❖ ❖ ❖

QANTAS Airways veteran flying-boat

Coriolanus, now well-known to Suva- Sydney travellers, is 10 years old this year and has recently completed 2h million flying miles. Newer and more modern flying-boats have come, and some have gone, but Coriolanus has escaped every peril of war and peace and alone of all her sister ships, flies on.

Corio was shot down by Zeros, Corin thian, too, was shot down in northern Australian waters; Circe disappeared in the same latitudes. In the early Jap raids on Broome, Corinna and Centaurus were sunk at their moorings. Calypso and Coogee were lost while under RAAF charter.

After launching, Coriolanus flew the Empire routes until Japan came into the war and cut off the Far East. She was then transferred to Qantas, in Australia.

She helped in the evacuation of Singa pore and later was switched to emergency transport operations in New Guinea, car rying in urgent equipment and personnel and bringing back wounded. After the war ended she was one of the first Aus tralian planes to go back to Singapore.

Coriolanus now maintains a weekly ser vice to and from New Caledonia from Sydney, with a one fortnightly extension to Suva, Fiji. She has 20,000 flying hours to her credit all of them accident free.

“AS an example of the kind of bureau cratic tomfoolery which we have to put up with in New Guinea, I give you the story of the Salamaua’s meat,” said a Rabaul plantation manager, now on furlough in Sydney.

“When the Carpenter liner “Salamaua’ arived here, last March, the people of Rabaul had been without fresh meat for many weeks. That was the result of the remarkable and beautiful system under which Canberra runs its ships to New Guinea two or three vessels de parting within a few days of each other, and then no ship with refrigerator space leaving for another couple of months.

“Well, when the captain of the “Sala maua” saw the straits of the Rabaul people, he gave orders that 300 pounds weight of fresh meat be immediately un loaded and sent ashore.

“This was done. But the Customs men said: ‘Put it in the sljed.’

“The captain said: ‘But this is not trade meat this is a gift from the ship to the people of Rabaul, to help them over a bad spot.’ .

“‘We can’t help that,’ said Customs. ‘Our instructions are quite clear. That

foodstuff must go into the shed and be assessed for duty.’

“ ‘To the devil with you and your regu lations,’ said the captain. ‘Send it back onto the ship.’ And back onto the ship it went, and Rabaul’s meatless condition continued.

“That incident which was witnessed by Captain Jimmy Duncan, now harbour master in Rabaul is typical of what we have to put up with under our highly refined system of administration.”

TIPPO, part Chow, part Irish Terrier, had a fuller life than most dogs; and probably was better known to more people. Now Tippo is dtead in Sydney, in early July, aged about 12 years.

Tippo was the constant companion of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. M. Adelskold, well known residents of Morobe, New Guinea.

Everyone who knew the Adelskolds knew also their large ginger-brown dog.

In early 1942, the Morobe district was scorch-earthed and evacuated. Mr. Adel skold was one of those who walked from Wau to Papua by the Bulldog route. Tippo went too, sharing his master’s rations and the hardships of the trail. Then, like other he became a Sydney evacuee. Tippo, again like some Terri torians, will not now be returning to New Guinea. No doubt he is still chasing kanaka ghosts in some doggy Elysium.

Photograph shows Mr. Adelskold and Tippo shortly before he died.

IN former days, in the British Solomons, Levers used to provide their planta tions with gin for use in the hospital in case sick native workers required stimulants.

Needless to say, the gin was not always used for this purpose as it frequently became necessary to “save a life” other than that of Brown Brother. On one such occassion a search of the medicine cupboard revealed that only one bottle remained while a check on patients showed that there was only one inmate who might require stimulating.

The need of the plantation manager; was great and immediate, but, being the product of a good English school he felt that he had to be fair about it—l mean, one simply must play the game!*, * After a moment’s thought- he took a coin from his pocket, flipped ‘it into the air then slapped it down on the back of his wrist, calling “Heads.” r Removing his hand covering the com

a pleased smile broke over his counten ance, and addressing the sick native he said: “Oh, hard luck, Man! I’ve won the toss!” He grabbed the bottle of gin, and, as he left the hospital called back:

“Thanks so much, old boy.”

Fpa.

FIJI’S Department of Agriculture is appealing for fish-stories concern ing both the fish that bit, and those that did not. This is in connection with the survey now being conducted in Fiji by Mr. C. F. Hickling, Fisheries Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Mr. Hickling is reported to be worried about the scarcity of fish in Fiji, com pared with the quantities in other tropi cal countries; and he has called Suva’s fish-markets a “rough-house.”

The Town Board has replied that al though they now have fixed on a site and have plans for a new market, build ing materials have not yet materialised.

From the fishing end, amateurs can play their part in boosting fish production in the Colony by reporting their experi ences.

Until a year or so ago most of the “Islands fish” eaten in Suva’s hotels came from New Zealand. Last year, however, two large fishing enterprises went into operation in Fiji waters and it was hoped the position would change. ♦ 9 • LIFE at Rotuma goes along in the old quiet way, except that at the moment we have the excitement of seeing the MV “Mirrabooka” in port. - She will load copra for the UK. Six sailors (Swedish) called at the house this even ing (June 2), and asked to be directed to some dance halls and hotels, and they wanted to know where the “City” was located. They’d been looking for it, and could not find it.

I informed them that Rotuma was not as other places it has no dance halls, hotels or cities. They went away mur muring sadly about its being a very “un happy” place indeed. However, I’ve no doubt they will soon get on the trail of some orange wine and some damsels, and find that it is not so “unhappy” after all!

But they might be!

Amel.

THERE is a look of melancholy about Captain A. R. W. Robertson, who has just been transferred from the Treasurership in Fiji to a similar job in Trinidad; and his friends say it is based on loneliness, and is the result of his great height. He is supposed to be the tallest man in British Colonial Service 6 in., or so and his length seems to be accentuated by his thinness. Con sequently, despite his courtesy and his charming manners, his company is avoided by short men., and especially by short fat men. When a rotund man of 5 ft. 5 in. or thereabouts stands and tries to talk to a very thin man whose inches are nearly 80, the situation creates general unhanpiness. (Short men do not guess it, of course, but a very tall man usually is just as sensitive about things as is a very short man; and each unconsciously avoids the other.) Captain Robertson, in Fiji, is very con snicuous among the Indians, whose inches rarely exceed 65. He will be just as noticeable in Trinidad, where more than a Quarter of the population of half a million are Indians,

FROM a correspondent in Polynesia: “The extraordinary letters we re ceive from abroad indicate the reason why so many of your correspon dents resent an exposure of the actual state of Islands life and economy, in this modern period. The average prospective visitor to Polynesia has been persuaded that a sort of Mohammedan paradise of unbridled licence exists in the South Pacific. For example: not long ago I received a letter from an old satyr in Australia, requesting me to pick out a girl for him in readiness for his early arrival!

“Who may condemn the satyr? He has read it in the books and if you see it in print it must be so.”

“Another letter, from a lady in Detroit, hysterically besought me to assure her that the ‘South Sea Utopia’ is no myth.

“The undying belief in the South Sea Bubble is one of the marvels of this so called sophisticated age.”

AN article in August issue described the effort of the Port Moresby Adminis traction to discourage the use of the term “boy.”

Australians, characteristically, do not bke people of inferior races, and, although the theorists end academicians who cluster around the Canberra Government insist that all men are eaual. and the dark-skinned folk must be regarded as

brothers, it will take a century of educa tion to remove basic Australian prejudices.

One is reminded of what happened when Australian troops were sent to the Middle East. The “Diggers” were not impressed by Middle Easterners, and they invented sundry descriptive words to indicate their dislike and contempt. High authority was distressed, and the troops were told that they must treat the brown and yellow people of those latitudes with more respect. “Get it into your minds that the better classes of these people are worthy Oriental gentlemen” was a memorable phrase from Orders.

The Diggers just loved the words “worthy Oriental gentleman”—and from their initials they got “Wog.” “Wog,” as a word to describe contemptuously any nondescript and unlovable specimen of Middle Eastern humanity, has passed permanently into the English language.

Incidentally, it is not a remarkable thing that the roughest and toughest sections of Australian workers who literally scream at even a hint of an at tack on the “White Australia policy,” should to-day be making common cause with the Indonesians (by no means an admirable type of Asiatic) against the Dutch (who are among the best types of Europeans) ? * * 9 A coat of arms has been granted by the King to the British Solomon Islands.

One of the most interesting things about

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it is the archaic language of the “Gazette” notification: “Know Ye therefore that We of Our Prince Grace and Special Favour have granted and assigned and by these Presents do grant and assign the follow ing Armorial Ensigns for the said British Solomon Islands Protectorate that is to say, for Arms, Gules a Solomon Islands Turtle erect and affrontee proper a Chief Palypily Argent and Sable as the same are in the painting hereunto annexed more plainly depicted to be borne for the said British Solomon Islands Protectorate upon Seals, Shields, Banners, Flags or otherwise according to the Laws of Arms.” >5 * RECENT “PIM” references to sales of mother-of-pearl buttons at 1/9 each have made me regret a lost oppor tunity. During the war I had a large stock of these, intended originally for pyjama coats; and foolishly sold them— they were about the size of a penny—at two for 3d. (pre-war price was 1/- c&zen).

So, if “PIM” reoort be true, I’ve lost 1/7'i on each pearly disc; but, in any case, I fancy the Cook Island Price Control Deartment would have something to say about 1/9 per button.

By the same token, this writer had in stock the very last elastic in the Cl when it was utterly unobtainable in even the big stores, as a result of Japan’s siezure of supplies in the East. This was posi tives scrambled for at 3d. a yard; and could have been sold, with equal ease,

at 3/-.

E.G.