Tropicalities

Gnashing Of Teeth Dept.

PHOTOGRAPHS in Sydney and Brisbane newspapers in Jan uary showed six young men om the American Trust Territory Marshalls, Carolines and arianas.

They were in Sydney on their iy to Suva, the caption said, to in a few score of their fellow anders in the study of dentistry edicine, etc. But Suva's famous mtral Mjedical School was des ibed as the AMERICAN Medical hool—which fact the cynical will obably be prepared to regard as i omen.

Case Of The Missing

Records

YING in bed on the ground i floor of his home overlooking Papeete harbour, Mr. Oscar jrdman, ship’s chandler, was irtled on the night of December by a crash upstairs, followed by otsteps descending to his bed om. Then an unsteady figure peared, bearing a valuable etched linese pot (Oscar’s own property), lich he offered to Oscar for ,000. The visitor was a member the engine-room staff of the USS i’s Wairata, then in port. He had oken a lock to enter the house. ; admitted his name, and finally t the house—and the pot—with t receiving $l,OOO.

Aboard, next day, the charges ire admitted before the Master, it Oscar decided, in view of his ig and happy business associa in with the Union Co., not to rry the matter further.

Fhe Wairata sailed for Auckland, ixt day Oscar, going to his amophone to play over his yourite recordings. discovered /eral missing. Then he realised ly last night’s unwelcome visitor d had the tail of his shirt hang l out—conveniently covering the it of his pants, which had been ided with Hawaiian hula hits, car, still forgiving, asks only for e return of his recordings.

“Some Scoop—Some

Dredges” !

NSW country newspaper, Wing- L ham Chronicle, said on Janu ary 18 that “a gentleman from ie Creek gold area, up Papua iy,” declared that there was ough gold-bearing gravel left ere “for another seven years.” ! added that “some of the world’s rgest dredges are in use there—

each of the ten biggest has a capacity of 10,000 tons, and can scoop to a depth of 80 feet.” Adds the paper, appropriately: “Some dredges—some scoop!”

Now the Bulolo Valley can start gnashing its teeth with envy.

Cigars For Long Life

A Cigar-Smoking Man Of

God” was the heading which NZ Free Lance of January 23 put above an article about the Rev. J. F. Goldie, who pioneered the Methodist Mission organisation in the Solomons 49 years ago.

It is said that the Methodist Church heads, although they honoured and loved Mr. Goldie, were a little embarrassed over his habit of smoking big, strong cigars.

The Methodists, officially, deplore tobacco as they deplore alcohol and other human frailties. But they

put on a good face over JFG’s cigars.

When, on his retirement, they made him a presentation, the Rev.

A. H. Scriven (himself well-known in the mission field) smilingly brought forward a smoker’s stand, handsomely made in walnut. “This” said Mr. Scriven, “is planned to hold a small aspidistra.”

Cheers and laughter indicated that Methodists do not lack a sense of humour.

Big cigars must have offset the BSI climate. At 81, Mr. Goldie is active and is putting the New Testament, in the New Georgian language, through the press.—AJS.

Success Story—Lau To

London

IN January, Miss Elizabeth Hen nings, eldest of the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs.

G. M. Hennings of Naitauba, Lau Islands, Fiji, was paying a visit to her parents after an absence from the Colony of 16 years.

She is now a costume designer for J. Arthur Rank film productions and has also designed costumes for stage shows. She specialises in period costumes or at least something

that is away from ordinary, modern clothes. Some of the recent films that she has “dressed” are Black Narcissus, The Golden Salamander, Great Expectations and Blue Lagoon, part of which was filmed in Fiji.

It seems a long way and we don’t mean miles from a plantation in lonely Lau to what most people would regard as a glamour job in London. But with the Hennings family, anything is possible.

Miss Elizabeth and her younger sister left Fiji to try their fortunes in London in 1936 when they were youngsters. London rang no peals of bells when they arrived, and if it were not precisely life in a garret in traditional manner until they had made niches for themselves in that self-sufficient hub of the Empire, it was close to it.

Miss Hennings will spend a holi day at Naitauba before returning to England for her next costume designing assignment.

Brainstorm

SYDNEY Telegraph columnist pro vided this, in January: From Fiji, good news for embryo million aires: Because the natives in those parts are saving their sixpences in a big way there’s a big scarcity of that coin.

The official exchange rate is about 10£d Fijian for 1/- Australian, but if you take two sixpences the authorities will give you 1/- Fijian for them, just to get the coins.

Now: If you took £l,OOO of Aus tralian sixpences to Fiji, collected £l,OOO Fijian, brought it back here, converted it into £1,130 Australian, changed it into sixpences, took them to Fiji, collected £1,130 Fijian, brought it back here, converted it Into £1,276/18/- Australian . . .

Money for Jam —except for fares and excess baggage on a chaff-bag full of zacs.

Fiji’S Kerosene Spring

FIJIAN villagers of Tamavua, near Suva, have what they think is a spring of kerosene.

Something that looks and smells like kerosene mixed with water has been oozing out of cracks in the soapstone. Rate of drip is about a medicine bottle per hour of what, pending analysis, seems to be one tenth kerosene and nine-tenths water.

It has been suggested that this may be a leak from an undiscovered war time dump of kerosene.

When news of Tamavua’s kero sene-well became known, masses of people, enterprising Indians well to the fore, descended on Tamavua in the hope of finding diluted petro leum products in the Province of Naitasiri, although, nothing like the by-product kerosene is found un assisted in Nature.

Anyway, the watered kerosene of

Tamavua, at this date, remains a mystery.—J.K.S.

Sydney Quid-A-Bag Copra

WHEN a lighter overturned at Lever Bros.’ soap works, Bal main, Sydney, in mid-January 1,400 bags of New Guinea copra, each valued at about £4/10/-, went in the drink. The insurance com pany involved immediately put a diver to work; but copra has a habit of floating.

How many bags the diver re covered is not known—but several days later bags were appearing on most of the northern beaches of the main harbour.

Commercial fishermen abandoned fish-hooks for boat-hooks, and land lubbers hired dinghies to salvage the precious jetsam, once it be came known that the insurance company would pay £1 per bag for the wet copra. At latest report, half the cargo had been recovered.

Kava In Suburbia

FROM the social notes of a Sydney daily: “Kava wine, a Fijian native drink, was served to the 200 guests at the District Chamber of Commerce party in Double Bay (Sydney) The why and wherefore of the introduction of this exotic beverage to Sydney night life were not given.

Nor was the guests’ reaction to same.

Beating The Books

SYDNEY bookmakers were re ported to be heaving deep sighs of relief late in 1951 when “Wet Weather Robbie,” pro prietor of the Samarai guest house, Eastern Papua, returned home from leave in Australia.

It is said that, for an initial out lay of £3/10/-, Robbie returned home with £1,400, collected from the gentlemen who lay the odds.

They Will Prove It’S Good—

Or Else

AUSTRALIA’S crocodile shooters —l5O of them —will get to gether this month in Mel bourne for a four-days’ conference.

They will then probably ask the Federal Government to protect crocodiles under five feet long. Un less they are protected, say the shooters, there will bo no crocs in Australia within 10 years—which, of course, some people might think would be a very good thing.

At the dinner that will be the social high-light of the conference, the crocodile shooters will eat seasoned and cooked crocodile tail —in the hope of disproving the common belief that the tail is poisonous.

If the shooters are wrong about this—well, maybe there won’t be any crocodile shooters left in ten years, either.

Hurricane Settled Paly

Question

TO MOST people, the coconut the most graceful of all pah In Suva there are compai tively few coconut palms—tl opinionated place having gone for the straight-growing ro; palms because, it is said, somebc once had the idea that they wi safer than coconuts in a hurrica But, on January 28, many Suva’s royal palms went over 1: ninepins in the hurricane; wb even the five very old cocor palms in the Triangle came throu with no more damage than the L of some fronds.

A small group of coconut pal: near the Cable Office was virtua unharmed; while, a few yards aw; one of ZJV’s big radio masts v broken and bent over like a ha pin. The nearest royal palm wc fiat early in the storm, all I obliterating a public lavatory the way down.

As far as can be discovered, r body was injured by flying coc nuts in Suva. It all adds up to recent note in the PIM: Suva woi be well advised to scatter cocor palms round about with the sai enthusiasm as Honolulu.—S.

Post-Hurricane Suva Eye

Tourists Askance

With two of its six hot knocked out, post-hurricane Su has taken in the Welcome mat J tourists. Even the Grand Paci: which escaped serious damage, said to be limiting tourist bookir for part of February.

Apart from all the obvic worries, post-hurricane Suva frankly hideous. Some of t scars will disappear quite soon, fc many will remain for years. Tourii who gazed bemusedly at Fiji’s u usually flowery capital in Decei ber, and used up their colour fi on the blazing flamboyant tre would scarcely recognise the pla in February.

Bernhardt

rAT portion of the story Tavua Johnson (PIM, Septer ber, page 62) which refers his voyage to Australia in 1890, the original Mariposa, stirs tl memory of our Tahiti corresponde who was later purser in that vessi Mr. Johnson remembered th John L. Sullivan and San Bernhardt were travelling cor panions with him. Our corre pondent now recalls the arrival Tahiti in 1925 of a Mr. Georg Charton who, having asked hi why he had named his hot Mariposa and received the e; planation—went on to tell how 1 himself had travelled in Maripo. in the employ of Sarah Bemhan on the voyage referred to by M Johnson. Mr. Johnson may rec£ that the master of the ship at thi time was Captain James Rennie.