Palmyra Instead of Christmas Is

Christmas Is.

For Airline Base

PALMYRA atoll, 960 miles south of Honolulu, may become a tourist resort.

During September, Mr. Richard K. Kimball, owner of the well known Halekulani Hotel, Honolulu, and other interested persons flew to the island from Hawaii to examine the possibilities of estab lishing a hotel there for fishermen and vacationists.

It is understood that the Fullard- Leo family, which owns the atoll, is agreeable to the plan. The Fullard- Leo property is at present in charge of a caretaker, who, with an assist ant, represents the sole population of the atoll, whose 50 islets cover the area of about 250 acres surround ing an extensive system of shallow lagoons with land and water air craft landing areas.

It is possible that the tourist pro moters plan to work in with the proposed Honolulu-Papeete airline, which will require fueling facilities in this region. Christmas Island, 360 miles further south, had been tipped as the most probable island for this purpose. Both atolls were wartime staging points for aircraft

bound from the States to the southwest Pacific.

There appears to be some hitch over providing facilities for the new airline on Christmas Is. Its European population is about the same as that of Palmyra; the Gilbert and Ellice Is. Colony maintains there a Government agent-cumplantation manager, and copra is being worked. There is no indigenous population and, in the past, at periods when copra was valueless, there was no population at all. At present the G & E Colony is pro-

fiting from the copra cut there, but, in the broad view, Christmas Is. is of small economic worth. It a rainfall of about 30 inches a year, is composed entirely of white coral sand in which only coconuts will grow, and one visitor has gone on record as saying that even the milk in the coconuts tasted brackish!

But Britain evidently attaches great strategic importance to Christmas. Hence the hitch in negotiations with the new airline promoters.

The layman is permitted to

wonder what harm an airline fuel ling base could do, even if the island is the most strategically important hunk of coral land in the whole Pacific. Unless, of course, the G & E. Colony itself contemplates set ting up one of these non-paying airl i n es in which the British specialise.

Control Of Palmyra

Palmyra atoll, 960 miles south of Honolulu, may cease to be controlled from Honolulu if Hawaii gains Statehood, This was urged in Con gress recently when Hawaiian State hood was being debated.

Although Palmyra is densely planted with coconuts, the island lies completely unused, the two men there at present acting as caretakers for the Fullard-Leo family and another family which owns two of the islets. Occasional tuna boats from Honolulu are about the only callers.

At present copra prices it would seem that the 250-acre atoll might be profitably worked in conjunction with the neighbouring British islands of Fanning, Washington and Christmas which employ Gil bertese labour.

None of these islands have an in digenous population. One difficulty that would apparently arise under such an arrangement would be that whereas the British-owned islands ship their copra to Europe under contract to the British Ministry of

Food, the Palmyra copra might have to go to the States.

Shipment of copra from the atoll is said to be the principle obstacle to economic operation of the planta tions at present. Labour costs under Hawaiian conditions are ex cessive.

IT Mr. G. W. Johns, of Suva, Fiji, has had the honour of having two of his watercolours of the Rotorua district in New Zealand accepted for hanging in a suite of rooms to be occupied by the Queen during her New Zealand tour.