Half-Forgotten Paradise

(Continued from Page 55) On the following day, our back packs replenished with oranges, oananas and Salisbury canned beef, we sec out over the trail that leads to me Haapaa val ley. This is the same trail that the victorious Taipi valley warriors tooK when they surprised their sleeping neigh bours, the Haapaa, and slew them with their war-ciuos. Now only two native families live in the steep, narrow valley.

From the Haapaa we climbed over a long gradual rise for several hours.

About noon we rested on the summit and feasted our eyes on the great bay of Taiohae. Here on this spot where we sat, Captain Porter of the United States Navy, first declared the Marquesas an American possession in the year 1813.

His efforts were in vain, for tne Ameri can government never ratified the claim.

CAUTIOUSLY we picked our way down the dangerous incline that drops pre cipitously into Taiohae. The soda spring that quenched the thirst of Por ter’s men a century and a half ago still bubbles up along the trail and its waters still quench parched throats.

Taiohae is the home of Stanislaus Taupotini, third generation descendant of tne great Temoana, Marquesan chief who was captured by the English and exhibited in British circuses and carni vals. Here also lives Bob McKittrick, a Scotchman, who with Henry Lee. a Nor wegian, are the omy two non-French wnitemen in the entire Marquesas group.

Bob, who was completely washed out by the great 1946 tidal wave, has now re built his trading store and his home.

Because he had a gas refrigerator which yielded plenty of cold water, his home was my hangout during the days I spent in Taiohae. At Taiohae, too, is the French administrative quarters for the Marquesas. Dr. Brunis, the only medical officer in the entire group, also serves as resident governor and criminal and civil judge. Comptroller Bay, which opens into the broad Taipi valley, served as a refuelling stop for the Queen Mary during the recent war when she was be ing used as a troop transport. The same bay was used in World War I by the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

In Hatiheu valley, Establissements Donald, Ltd., are building a new trad ing store to replace the one lost in the 1946 tidal wave. Their only other trad ing post in the group is at Atuona. In Hatiheu, also, the resident priest of Nuku hiva is constructing a huge new Catholic church. rOM Nukuhiva I took passage on the schooner to Ua Pou, where I hiked back into the jungle to photograph the only three remaining stone tikis now still standing in the Marquesas. Of hundreds there at one time, all the rest have been carried off to museums. With so few inhabitants in many of the val leys, it is not difficult to carry off these unguarded valuable treasures. Neither here, nor on neighbouring Ua Huka, are there any white men living.

From the northern or Washington Group we put-putted our way down to Hiva Oa, Tahuata and Fatuhiva, the only inhabitated islands in the southern group. Of these Hiva Oa, 23 miles in length, is by far the largest. On it rests the peaceful little village of Atuona, the only real settlement in the islands worthy of the name of a village. Here lives Johnny Samoa, one of the best remembered characters I’ve ever met in my travels. Johnny, who is now in his late forties, is crippled by elephantiasis.

Despite this handicap, he acts as mini ster of the local Protestant church and works his own copra. But what es

pecially attracted me to Johnny, who was born in Savaii, Western Samoa, was his command of English. After weeks of hearing nothing but Marquesan, Tahitian and French, it was good to talk without effort in one’s own tongue.

Situated at Atuona is a Catholic girls’ school and also the headquarters of the

group’s Catholic Mission, under the super vision of Monsignor LeCadre, now in his 50th year in the Group. While I was there I watched him perform the mar riage ceremony for Teoho Teikinohoa, the bride, and Mahai Scallamella, the groom. Following the church ceremony these two young native newlyweds went

to the home of the bride where they entered the house by walking over the bodies of their parents, who, in old Marquesan custom, had prostrated themselves, white suits and dresses notwith- SniT gr o oU £ d - ne ° f weirdest sounds I ever heard was on the night before the wedding, when the female relatives of the betrothed couple wandered through the valley, at 2 a.m., chanting the genealogv of their forebears back through some 40 generations.

Despite the power of the Catholic church, these old Marquesan tribal customs continue to thrive.

Following the housewarming for the pair, a feast was held in a specially-built pavillion in which 500 friends and rela fives gorged themselves for five hours on breadfruit, poi, popoi, fish and the roasted meat of nine beef cattle and 10 n ;_ c , p gS- , eig^. ln the evemn S a dance as he This one th e , few dances allowed by the Catholic Mission aries in Hiva Oa, and the dancers made use of the occasion by continuing, with only brief breaks until 6 p.m. the fol lowing evening. As an American, whose knowledge of the native dance is defi

nitely limited, 1 provided the comic re lief.

IN the valley of Tahauka, close by Atuona, lives M. Leßrunnec, who with Henry Lee of Eiaone valley, Bob McKittrick and Father LeCadre, are the veterans of the Marquesas. Leßrunnec and Lee both have spent 39 years in the islands, while McKittrick has been there for only a few less. Formerly the three of them worked for the German firm, Societe Commerciale de I’Oceanie, as sailors aboard their copra schooners.

When the company went out of business at the time of the first war, the men took plantations of their own and have been copra men ever since.

Each of them is an expert in the lore of the ancient Marquesans, but I dis covered that Leßrunnec, an inveterate reader, was the only one who had heard of the A-bomb. (This is before the an nouncement of the H-bomb). Therein lies the happiness of these islands; their isolation from all the fears and strifes of the modern workaday world.

The Marquesas, like the Tuamotus and the Australs, never knew the presence of troops and airplanes and implements of war as did 90 per cent, of all the other Pacific islands. That, if nothing else, has kept them happy and still “native.”

It is good to know that there is still somewhere in this world where one can go to escape, if not the effects, at least the worries of the H-bomb and kindred items of our new horror warfare. It may be like the ostrich hiding his head in the sand and making believe no trouble exists, but as someone has said, “If the ostrich hides his head in fear of the atom bomb, he is wiser than we are; he may soon be the onlv fellow with a head.”

THERE are, of course, two schools of thought on this isolation business.

One school chastises the French Government for not taking better care of the natives’ medical, educational and economic needs; the others credit the colonial administration for its fore sight in the policy of laissez faire, hands off, and leaving the natives pretty much to their own devices.

I am not sure that I favour either school completely. I do feel this: I dis cussed the disease rates in the islands with the colonial doctor. His figures on the high percentages of leprosy, venereal disease and elephantiasis shocked me.

Despite the fact that the doctor makes rounds of the group whenever he can by boat (which is woefully inadequate) and that there is a disnensary at Atuona with Nurse Salmon in charge, there just isn’t anywhere near enough medical at tention. In such highly-unprofitable islands the administration of course, is not willing to increase its appropriations for upkeep. But one small seaplane, based anywhere in the islands. cou l d handle a Plying Doctor service set-up on the Aus tralian plan. It would mean adding small radio transmitters on Ua Huka, Ua Pou, Fatuhiva and Tahuata. but these need not be manned b TT special onerators. The vallev chief could be instructed in their use for medical emergencies. The same plan could be used to advantage in the Tuamotus and the Australs without really depriving the natives of any of their isolation and yet giving them great benefits.

The economy of the islands, a copra economy, is no worse and no better than that of any other Pacific island which rests its entire fortunes on copra. The Marquesas, which boast the largest coco nuts to be found anywhere, produce just over 2 000 tons of conra annually at pre sent. They have nroduced much more; and much less. Droughts that seem to

run in seven-year cycles plague the islands and force the copra output way down. They are still recovering from the latest drought that hit them four years ago. The large plantation in Tahauka valley, which formerly be longed to the German firm, but which is now operated by a young red-headed Frenchman just out from metropolitan France, last year was able to produce omy 25 tons. Five years before it was producing 70 tons annually.

It does seem to me, though, that much of the fertile land is lying useless.

Though the population of the group is now nearing 3,uou from its low of 2,100 a decade ago, there is still arable land and nsh in the sea to support ten, may be 20 or 30, times that many people, on the Ahoa plateau, wmch ues above Hanamenu on Hiva Oa, thousands of people could find living and farming room. In many of the valleys where only 200 or 250 people live now, once 4,000 or 5.000 people supported themselves. As recently as 100 years ago, more than 100.000 people lived in the Marquesas.

With our new knowledge of scientific farming, and with our need for room for Europe’s unfortunate DP’s, surely there is an opportunity going begging in the Marquesas.

Until transportation improves, there is no real reason for increasing the pro duction of fruit in the Marquesas, al though the oranges I ate there were sweeter and juicier than any I had ever tasted anywhere (Florida and California Chambers of Commerce, please note!).

Breadfruit, mangoes, tapotapo, bananas, limes, lemons, grapefruit, and various native fruits grow easily and without much care. Were transportation to an available market an easy matter, surely the Marquesas could become one of the world’s greatest fruit-growing areas.

In fields other than agriculture, the Marquesas have no real outlook, except

the chance presented by tourism. While there is no hotel and no cafe in all the islands, there are tourists who would de light to hear that fact. One cannot venture into the Marquesas without hav ing the closest contact with • the natives, which in Polynesia is a pleasant thougnc: in Melanesia it would be to the contrary.

For the person who would really like to get away from it all, and live on native fruits and fish, without all the accoutre

ments and paraphernalia of a holiday in a more complexlv civilised place, there is nowhere in this world like the Mar quesas.

Mr. J. D. A. Germond, a senior District Officer from the British Solomon Islands, who has acted on occasion as Resident Commissioner, passed through Sydney in May on his way to Britain on long leave.

It is reported that his next post will be m Bechuanaland.

The Noumea «fire brigade has received a cheque for 10,000 frs. from Establissements Ballande for their success in putting out a fire which started in their estimated a'Tlfooo frs Th6 damage is esLimarea ar irs.

New Caledonian jam producers are unable to compete, so far as price is concerned, with Australian imports. Australian jam sells at 18.18 francs a kilo (2.2 lb.), whereas the Caledonian product is retailed at 40 francs a kilo.