Tropicalities
pp. 71-72 · Read in the full issue
Magazine Section
Fire Walkers For Auckland?
A S a result of negotiations with A Fiji Government authorities and the chiefs of Beqa Island, rt seems probable that the Auck land Public Relations Office will obtain the paid services of a team of about 20 firewalkers from Beqa :?arly next year. They would be transported by air, to serve as the nain drawcard in Auckland’s unnual Industries Fair in February.
Mr. A. W. Sands, son of the late W. A. Sands, of Samabula, who left Fiji about 60 years ago, came back :rom Auckland to make the arrangements. Mr. Sands recalled that a team of firewalkers was a ?reat attraction at the Christchurch Exposition of about 1910. No team las ever appeared in New Zealand since then.
Prior to World War 11, the Beqa irewalkers used to perform regularly it Albert Park, Suva for all visiting 3ruise-ship passengers, and at one time for passengers aboard the 'egular trans-Pacific vessels. Now they demand at least £lOO, plus transport to and from the island, vith the rocks on which they per form, before the subject will even je considered.
Firewalking is also performed in Fiji by Indians on certain religious iccasions, and was also formerly lone by the natives of Raiatea, French Oceania, for the benefit of passengers on vessels visiting Papeete or Raiatea. They now rarely perform.
Oranges That Never
Arrived
rHE Cook Islands official -news of May 7 noted that just 100 years ago the brig Chatham had haded the first cargo of oranges wer to be shipped from Aitutaki to 3an Francisco. Lament, in his book, Savage Life In the South Seas , tells of the cargo being loaded — md how the vessel was wrecked on 3 enrhyn as she made her way north vith it. What happened thereafter to Mr. Lament is told in one of the )est books of the Cook Islands ever to appear, and long since out of irint.
Suva Wheelbarrow Race
MOST amusing of the Suva Coronation season’s many events, was the wheelbarrow *ace for persons of European or jart-European extraction.
Immediately after offices had
closed on June 8, almost the entire population of the Fiji capital massed along Victoria Parade from Albert Park to the finishing post near the post-office. Suva’s police force was fully taxed in keeping the eager crowd back to the footpath while the 96 contestants, many in fancy dress, took up their positions at three starting lines arranged on a handicap-by-age basis, each about 30 yards apart. Along the half-mile course were three com pulsory “fuelling points”—the Mel bourne, Club and MacDonald hotel bars. Considerable last-minute or ganisation work was involved in clearing these bars and lining up the 96 glasses of fuel, “horse” and “rider” both partaking and there upon changing roles for the next leg of the journey.
The field, though restive and tak ing some time to line up, finally got away to an excellent start in a cloud of cement-dust from the barrows and at remarkably high speed, preceded by a police car,
police motor cycles, police on foot a nd course officials, and followed hotly by ambulance, more police, and a howling mob of spectators — others had taken up vantage points on buildings which they rapidly vacated to join in the pursuit as the rumbling barrows passed on.
Eight official checkers stood by at each refuelling point to see that only the correct ration was taken aboard. Top-weights Vince Costello and Flight-Lieut. Roberts were left behind at the first refuelling station, and a good many mounts temporarily i o st their riders as the race swept down towards the finishing line, -with, appropriately enough, Airways representatives John Wisdom (of TEAL) and Mark Wells (of BCPA» surging ahead of the field to win by ma ny lengths, Barrows abandoned, the field weighed-in at the Garrick lounge, where a lot of froth was blown in the next half-hour, Prizes to the winners were two five-gallon kegs of beer, and to Messrs. Peter Wendt and R.
Lobendahn, of the Government Printing Office, who were second, one five-gallon keg.
Visitations
a USTRALIAN New Guinea is not the only Territory thereabouts to suffer under political visita tions. It is announced that eight members of the Netherlands Parlia ment will visit Western New Guinea in August, “for orientation pur poses.” (Next Page)
Donga?
IT would be interesting to know the origin of that now well-used New Guinea word donga. It is used in reference to a house—more particularly to a hut or a small dwelling, single-quarters and the like. It is not Pidgin and was never in use in TNG before the war.
Is it something that the 2nd AIF brought back from the Middle East or Borneo and presented to TNG?
The orphan word seems to fit well enough into the local scene, but from whence did it come? Collins dictionary lists a “donga” but says that it is a South African term meaning water channel or gully.
New Guinea housing has been called many things in recent 3 7 ears but that hardly describes it.
PAP-you-a THERE may be differences of opinion as to whether Aus tralia’s Territory of Papua is rounounced PAH-poo-a or Pah 00-a, but surely there can be no sible justification for the pro nunciation persistently used from Australia's official voice, Radio Aus iia, particularly by one Julian ; nbledon: PAP-you-a. — J.P.S. .’here are plenty of residents of Territory—particularly on the • Guinea side—who did, and do, t PAP-you-a. If the Polynesian , that every syllable ends with t \ el, is followed then it should Pc.-pu-a. But does the Poly rule hold good in Melanesia? ■ >o, outside Rabaul, has always pronounced Kok-o-po, not ko-po. There are many other e nples.)
Liaison Lacking
4 YOUNG BLOOD” of Raro- A tonga, charged with being on remises without permission at I p.m., pleaded with the Court the charge was most un : e sonable. The daughter had in -1 ‘d him in—but, as the Court had noted—it was the father who had un him out. The “blood” broods n the matter for a month at Her lajesty’s gaol.
Oscar May Hoot
4 EW months ago Papeete’s \ ourist Bureau lodged a pro est with Mayor Poroi against ie . noise caused by a siren, which :sident Oscar Nordman uses in 5 self-appointed capacity as icial fareweller to departing nps Oscar apparently won that aid, and the hooter continued to noot— unpleasantly close to the I. v °unte club of the respected ■ inst Bureau chiefs. fhen, in April, there appeared in t Journal Officiel— the Govern nnt Gazette—a decree ousting ail i noises,” Oscar’s noise in cl ided. The Chief of Police brought to Oscar on June 3—the day on
which the MM liner Tahitien arrived from France on her maiden voyage—the sad tidings that there was to be no hooting. When the vessel departed, emitting deep throated bellows after a happy first call at the Tahiti capital, the population was amazed that Oscar, on behalf of the city, failed to give the traditional three blasts of reply and bon voyage.
Citizens came to Oscar; and he passed them on to Acting-Mayor Pambrun (in the absence of Mayor Poroi overseas) ; and M. Pambrun went to the Governor to plead the good cause. Result: Oscar’s siren was reinstated.
In conveying the happy tidings, Oscar recalls an event in Pago Pago, circa 1920. There, strolling along the waterfront softly whistling a tune, Oscar was hurriedly overtaken by a policeman on a bicycle, who demanded that he cease his noise
immediately or be arrested. Think ing that the policeman was joking, Oscar carried right on with his tune. He was promptly arrested and dragged off to the police station, where he was told that all unnecessary noises—and especially whistling—were prohibited by the' then Governor, Commander Warren J. Terhune. Oscar recalls that this- Governor, some time later, com mitted suicide, just prior to the arrival of the cruiser South Dakota to investigate some troubles that were brewing on the island.
Oscar introduced his hooter on behalf of the citizens of Papeete three years ago, with the permission of former Governor Louis Girault, who personally came along to Oscar’s residence the former American consulate on the day that the instrument was installed on the front of the building, to perform the inaugural toot.