[?]rank Comparisons

[?] an Anglo [?]rench Condominium

By Judy Tudor

SANTO, March 16. kN the highest terrace above Vila, * with a magnificent view down the harbour, is the new French isidency. Built of reinforced con 3te, it has tiled floors, indirect hting, fancy new shutters from e South of France (they look like b lids of roll-top desks) and a mtage of, maybe, 120 feet. [t is not quite complete yet, but nearly so. Some of the Italian aourers who came out to cut Dra for a Santa planter are work ' on it.

What the edifice cost, only the mch Administration knows. But ay down on the waterfront, to ; right of the town, is a small igalow that houses local aviation’s teorological department. It sits maybe, a quarter acre of land'; i local residents point it out with ne pride because building and id alone cost £9,000. On this ndard of values —and buying d in Vila is little cheaper than ring land in Pitt Street, Sydney he new French Residency could worth £30,000 or £40,000.

'rom its front reception rooms, leath the Riviera shutters, you i£ down far below, to the small, en, high island in Vila Harbour ich is called Iririki. On the flat of Iririki is the British Resid y—although all you can see of from the French Residency is painted tin roof. It probably ses some Frenchmen some ader —if not othejr emotions — ;n they stand there and cogitate that something in the British racter that makes him remove iself, remotely, to a small island, [aybe it was that inherent yearn for dignity and aloofness that )k the symbol of British Might a small island in the harbour — it makes for discomfort and small practical sense, resumably, when the citizens of i call at the British Residency y choose their own means of er transport canoes or a ich, or anything in between. . the sole means by which the nal residents of the Residency t the mainland seems to be a pie of small dinghys, rowed by whirlwind Hebridean oarsmen up like British Naval ratings, t rains while making the cross the occupants of the dinghys up their umbrellas, he job could be done more iently, you feel, by an outboard ;or —and there may well be one :wo of these in the background, for most occasions the row-boats tradition—and, God knows, if

you take tradition away from the British in the Hebrides they would have little left.

The visitor to Iririki, on alighting at the jetty, is confronted with a mammoth flight of cement steps -which lead straight up in continuous flight to the Residency above.

There are two ways of negotiating them: (a) under your own power; or (b), if you are elderly, infirm and of considerable importance, in a litter carried by a team of sweating New Hebrideans. The story has it that the wife of one Resident Commissioner instituted a third method (c), and rode a donkey.

The Residency is, perhaps, 400 or 500 feet above the sea; but to the gentlemen in freshly laundered

suits, collars and ties bidden on top, for official cocktails; or for ladies in finery on a wet night, the distance could as well be 5,000 feet, The climate of Vila—which is built with its back to the prevailing wind —is such that the slightest exertion brings on something in the human body that is a near relation to a fire sprinkler system, * * * \ T present there is one British Agent on the island of Tanna.

All the rest of British official dom is at Headquarters in Vila, These young and youngish men are predominantly of the genus Good Chap, to whom most things are a Frightful Joke. They are the type that fill the average Colonial—and

robably the average Frenchman — ith wild misgivings and as a re alt of this traditional buffoonery re probably much underestimated. • To take a pot-shot at an im ression of the Hebrides: The French, Tespective of the British and the ondominium, go ahead and regard le Hebrides as a Colony. Their aim ; to help the colonists and, through aem, the French Government, he welcome-mat is put out to any le of any race or colour, who ires to shelter under the French ag. They provide schools and hos itals • The British seem to be there terely from habit. Unlike the rench (by whom the law and the igulation is bent to accommodate le citizen) they believe the law id the regulation are paramount, id the citizen merely there to con rm. They provide no schools— lucation, such as it is, and medical rvices being left to the in lequate resources of the missions, ley have a doctor—but he, too, for mt of proper facilities, seems to end his time in the British itablishment in Vila.

What the whole British set-up of icials is now doing in the Hebrides uld be done in effect by a British >nsul, if the country were a ench colony. The happiest thing e can say for the continued itish habit of staying in the sbrides is that the British pre •ve the status quo; that, in the mt of another war, they could, in World War 11, act as go ;weens with our Allies.

Neither French, British nor Con ninium appear, as in other native

territories, carried away with the idea of “doing something for the native.” No one pines to turn the Hebridean into a peasant-farmer, a rice-grower, a native capitalist, or anything else. There are no medical patrols into distant parts; none of this business, as in New Guinea, of rolling back the frontiers to give the benighted savage a glimpse of civilisation.

Apart from paying him the highest wages in Melanesia, the Hebridean is left pretty much to his own devices. This, say the cynics, is a pretty good thing—be tween the French and the British, he has learned that (a) life is real and earnest; (b) he need ex pect no handouts from the welfare state and (c) the Hebridean, by and large, is turning out no worse than his more-pampered brethren in the Territories further west.

That veteran of the South Pacific Islands, Mr. F. T. Goedicke van Asten, now enjoying his 91st year in salubrious Auckland, went for a stroll the other day, sat down on a high bank to watch a Waitemata boat-race—and contrived an awk ward fall, to the foot of the bank.

They picked him up, sewed up a nasty cut in his head, dusted him off, and sent him home to recover from a bit of concussion. A recent letter indicates that he is taking his usual lively interest in human affairs. They bred them tough in the somewhat blue-blooded circles whence came this German- Bavarian aristocrat nearly 100 years ago.

More Islands

Travellers

Islands travellers (left to right):— Mr. and Mrs. Charles Frogier, of Noumea, farewelled after a visit to Papeete by Infantry Captain L. Rabany.

Mr. Frogier was born in Tahiti and is attached to the New Caledonia Health Department.

Miss Elaine Frogier and fiance Mr. Andre Beyney, leading cyclist of New Caledonia.

Mr. Beyney recently destinguished himself in cycling events in France. Taken on his departure from Papeete for Noumea by TEAL.

Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Carew, of Suva, arriving in Auckland, en route to England, on leave. Mr. Carew is on staff of Fiji Audit Department.

Mr. Fritz Krueger and children arriving in Auckland from W. Samoa. Mr. Krueger had been showing films in Savaii when his wife suddenly died there. He had earlier visited Niue on mission activities.

Formerly of W. Samoa, the family now resides in Auckland.