The Editors' Mailbag

Itewart’s Handbook

Does anyone want a copy of ' tewart’s Handbook of the Pacific stands, 1918 edition—a compilation rhich now is comparatively rare nd considerably in demand. If so, tie Rev. A. H. Voyce, well-known lethodist Missionary at Kihili, uin, Bougainville, Territory of New 1-uinea, has a copy in practically erfect condition which he is pre ared to dispose of.

Stewart’s Handbook, for many sars, was the only compilation of le kind in existence, but it ceased ablication in 1921. Its well-known iitor, Mr. P. S. Allen, who was >r many years a member of the iitorial staff of the Sydney Morn g Herald, now lives in retirement i North Sydney.

0 Reds in Fiji

A marked parallel between con tions which have led to such astic action in British Guiana, id those in Fiji, is found by a irrespondent, “Old European Re- Sent,” who lived many years in iva. He points out that the largest mmunity in both colonies com ises Indians brought in to work e sugar industry and that both ive developed anti-British tend cies. He refers in biting terms the recent behaviour of Indian wn councillors in Suva, and to Blhi’s maintenance in Fiji of a >ec i a 1 Commissioner for the dians; and he urges that every dian in Fiji be compelled to learn heart the terms of the Deed of ssion made between Great Britain d the Fijians.

We would remind our corre pndent, however, that there is in ji no sign of the dangerous Mus vite Communism which in recent ars has penetrated the Central nerican countries in such large jasure; and that, to an increas -1 degree, the British authorities ? showing confidence that the w generations of educated Fijians d educated Fiji-born Indians, will pettier find a suitable solution of e Indian problem in Fiji. ft is worth noting, however, that 5 . Fiji Indian weekly, Pacific view, was quickly in action with vehement defence of the pro mmunist set-up of Cheddi Jagan Guiana. The Fijian language ekly Volagauna, on the other nd, produced an equally vehement lunciation of Jagan, with a diplo itically-worded but unmistakable that, if there are signs of ythmg of the sort in Fiji, the lians will be stirred to take a dly active hand in politics.

ie Japanese

.rom a man who once lived in i Far East.

I notice that the head of your

returned soldiers is raising an out cry against the development of new and friendly relations with Japan. He is bitter because, when the war criminals were shipped home from Manus the other day, we accorded them military honours.

Cannot he understand that we now must believe that the Japanese will align themselves with the West, as our friends?”

Well, maybe. But we of the PIM somehow cannot forget the Islands people we know who were murdered by Japs between 1942 and 1945.

Nor can we forget the lines written by Ogden Nash, before World War II: How courteous is the Japanese: He always says, ‘Excuse it, please He climbs into his neighbour’s garden, And smiles, and says, 7 beg your pardon’.

He bows and grins a friendly grin, And calls his hungry family in.; He grins, and bows a friendly bow: ‘So sorry, this my garden now’.

Atom Bombs?

While Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa had too much sunshine in an ex ceptionally dry spell through August, September and part of Oc tober (Fiji reports a real drought) the Lower Cook Islands were ex periencing the opposite in weather.

“Absolutely foul —cold, wet and tempestuous without a break for two months,” writes Meteorologist Gordon Russell, who was in Fiji for some years beforei going to Rarotonga. He adds that he has never before known such a spell of weather in the tropics.

From the other side of the Pacific, residents of Madang, New Guinea, report the driest spell in memory. Domestic water-tanks <and there is no town supply) have dried up and most of the trucks in the town have been diverted to carrying water from the Gum River.

They have had only two showers in the last four months.

Australia, too, is experiencing freak weather. Droughts in the north, and an unusually cold spring further south. During the night, following the recent atomic ex plosion at Woomera, most of NSW was lashed by violent electrical storms, with hail and fire-balls and all the trimmings. It was inevit able that “them atom bombs” should collect most of the blame. Scientists sneer at the idea and say that the sun continuously gives off thousands of times more heat than any atom bomb likely to be devised by man.

Nonetheless, there are scores of people who believe that we have had more freakish weather since science learned to split the atom

A Crack—But not Sinister

A valued correspondent in Suva informs us, mildly, that the report that the Carpenter building there was cloven in two by the earth quake was, like Mark Twain’s death, slightly exaggerated.

Actually, there are two buildings one on piles, and one built later on a floating foundation, so it could subside independently, if it wanted to. It subsided about 3 inches; and then, about 20 years ago, it came to a permanent roost whereupon the crack between the two was plas tered over. The quake shook the plaster out, and made the crack look interesting; but, actually, neither building was damaged or disturbed by the September visita tion.

Word of Old-Timer

Writing cheerily from Kampar, Perak, Malaya, New Guinea, old timer E. C. Monk claims that the kai-kai story we printed a few months ago, and which does the rounds occasionally, was first heard in “Ethel’s bar,” at Ushers Hotel, Sydney, famous for many years as the unofficial club of men from New Guinea.

“Ethel was a real good sport,” writes Mr. Monk. “She had a little bar on her own, and was held ih high regard by New Guinea-ites who congregated there. Many ai our chaps who went broke in Sydl - were helped financially by her to the extent of £2O and, as far as I know, only one fellow ever failed to repay her.”

Mr. Monk was on the Morobe goldfields for several years. Then he leased Ah Chee’s hotel in Rabaul, and re-named it the Cosmopolitan; and later he was the licencee of the Rabaul Hotel. He wants to know what has become of various old identities—naming especially Yorkie Booth, Frank Pryke, Bill Cash, Jackson Banks, Eric Wynne.

He sends kind regards to all old friends.

Since leaving Rabaul in 1939 he has worked as an engineer in Nigeria, Gold Coast Colony, and Malaya and has done a little world wandering as well.

At A TB Hospital

Sharp criticism of conditions at the Tuberculosis hospital at Tama vua, Fiji, is contained in a letter from an Auckland resident who re cently visited the Colony.

“Perhaps it would have been better for my peace of mind had I kept to the track of the average tourist,” she writes. “. . . The hos pital is well situated and the wards well kept; but the cooking facilities, especially for the medical students, were extremely primitive. The wash ing of dishes was being carried out on the stone floor—there appears to be insufficient room for benches.

They were using cold water to

inary thing that such conditions d? «he W « n v? S! ss of criticism ol this institution. r T i o

Whence Lame Iney.

S.H.C., writing from Brisbane, in Odorata” r (Sep b0 piM ‘page' ?he r 6 s S un ‘ bere 15 n °‘ hkg n6W Under "You state,” he writes, "that this beautiful and valuable tree should

be Quite suitable_lor the SPTem

pfKSSf irtS

tnd^they‘were 3 then SMS

HX£ y^?iS d S!

McKinnoS sawmU™, of Port

Romilly, had something to do with the supplying of the seeds or seea lings. In this, however, I may be ™°lt B would be interesting to know

?he Defta SmSS

would oblige with a photo of the largest one.