Power Machines Reach
pp. 69-70 · Read in the full issue
Isolated Polynesia
From Our Own Correspondent MANGAIA, Cook Is.
THE cliff-village traffic tunnel, which is the most ambitious Public Works project ever attempted here on Man gaia, Cook Is., is being pierced, after the completion of a deep cutting in the Maka tea highway, and a rock-crusher is now in operation. Driven from a power-hub on ’ the PW tractor, this formidable machine, the heaviest metal item ever landed, chews up coral rock between mas sive iron jaws, and is a source of interest to the villagers, nothing like it having been seen here before.
The forty-foot cutting was originally made to lay the angle at which the high way will lead into the planned tunnel, and for which Major W. H. Ryan, our energetic RA, who is an engineer, did the prelim inary surveying.
In view of its great historical value, an attempt is to be made to preserve the famous cliff steps, a relic of heathen times These, at present the only approach to the cliff-village, consist of great blocks of stone, laid (and roughly squared) en tirely by human labour—slaves, if old legend be accurate. It was formerly pro posed to fill the stairway in entirely, but revised plans allow for the retention of a portion of it as a concession to the archaeologist.
Our “ ‘ole in the road” is now illumin ated at night, for the sake of safety, even when the moon is full. It has already claimed a “human sacrifice,” in the best palae-Polynesian tradition—a village drunk who tumbled-in at the shallower end, fortunately without sustaining worse injury than a few bruises.
The completion of the project will enable the island’s fleet of trucks, in creasing each season, to proceed direct to the cargo-sheds, eliminating the present detour of two miles necessitated by the old road to the beach, made in 1930 by
Captain Wilcox. Before that, pack-horses struggled down the steps. For all minor purposes, such as bringing-up sand for floors from the beach, they still do; and of course, pedes trians use them at all times to reach the lower levels.
Miss Kathleen O'Callaghan, a South Australian nurse who will relieve the matron of Nauru hospital for six months, was the only passenger on a Norwegian freighter which left Adelaide for Nauru at the end of September.
A 60-ft. diesel tug was recently towed behind a freighter from New Guinea to the Clarence River, NSW. The NSW State Government has purchased her for harbour construction work.
Ambulance for Apia
THIS up-to-date ambulance is now in use in Apia, Western Samoa. AMP Takopo is shown standing be side it Superflash photo.
Mr. M. 11. R. Gough, a director of Hackshall’s Ltd., and Australian Soaps Ltd., Sydney, accompanied by his wife, arrived in Fiji in August. They will be in the Colony two months and will visit Tonga and Samoa by the October Matua.
Mrs. H. E. Maude, wife of the member for Social Development on the South Paci fic Commission, was guest-speaker at the South Australian Women’s Association in Sydney in September.