Nauruans Seeking New

Island

End of The Phosphate Era

ACCORDING to Head-chief Ray mond Gadabu, who was one of his island’s delegates to meet the Queen and the Duke of Edin burgh in Canberra, Nauru is in the market for a new homeland.

It is expected that when Nauru’s phosphate workings are finished— in about 30 years—the people’s sole source of income will have finished with it, and there will not be enough cultivable land left in Nauru to bother about.

The Nauruans want to emulate the Ocean Islanders, most of whom now live on Rabi, one of the Fijian islands, which they purchased after the Pacific War. They feel that they should not wait until the phos phate is nearly finished, but ac

quire a fertile island soon and be gin to learn how to live on it. By doing this, they will be able to take advantage of the fact that they are still in receipt of their income from royalties from Nauru phosphate.

Although Rabi is fertile, and Ocean Island was barren, the Ocean Islanders have had to make con siderable adjustments to fit them selves to the conditions of their new life, and this has not been ac complished without considerable homesickness for their former home—particularly among the older people. They have had to learn to provide for themselves on Rabi and to grow their own food, rather than to buy it in the store. In this they have been assisted by Fijians, who have been employed to show them how.

The Nauruans will probably have to look about smartly, as the supply of fertile, uninhabited islands is getting small, and it is unlikely that Fiji has another one like Rabi to sell. Whatever land Fiji has, she needs for her growing popula tion of Fijians and Indians.

It has been suggested that Nauru might get what she wants in an island off Papua or New Guinea. if Mr. Paul Mason, of Bougainville, returned in March from a visit to Australia as one of the Territory Delegation presented to the Queen at Canberra on February 15.