750 People On Islands

West Of Manus

A SYDNEY journalist, reporting from Manus at the end of June, said he had made a quick visit to the Her mit, Ninigo and Western Islands —three small groups of small islands lying west ward of Manus, in the Trustee Territory of New Guinea—and it was estimated that there are 750 natives there now.

The biggest community (350) is on Wuvulu atoll, in the Western group. They are light-skinned, highly intelligent folk, with a strong Micronesian strain; and their two villages, Onei and Anna, are famous for (a) the languorous beauty of their young women and (b) the fertility of their taro gardens, or swamps.

The 85 people on the other Western atoll of Aua are described as unhealthy, unhygienic, backward and given to both polygamy and polyandry.

The reporter found some 30 people on Luf, in the Hermits. The Hermits are not atolls. A German planter, Henry Rudolf Wahlen, built a famous mansion, staffed by Chinese, on Maron island, in the Hermits, before World War I, and lived there like an Oriental potentate.

All these islands appear to be fertile and well-forested; but the three groups are so small they are shown on few maps.

The New Guinea Administration has sent a party of experts to investigate in these islands. They are: Medical officer Dr. Kenneth Pike, an authority on tropical diseases; Agricultural Officer Thoral Sorenson, an expert on tropical agriculture; Pathology Technician Thomas Miller; Assistant-District Officer Pat Mol lison; Cadet Patrol Officer Brian O’Neill.