Drastically

Old-Time Natives Dealt

With Over Population

US Professor Makes 20th Century Survey

T‘ HE American who wrote Fiji- Little India of the Pacific , dur ing the war, is undertaking an other Pacific population survey, f He is Dr. John W. Coulter, pro cessor of Geography at the Uni versity of Cincinnati. And the 50 (people living on Pingelap, a ‘coral atoll two-thirds of a square mile in area, have been chosen

for the pilot studies.

Pingelap is in the eastern Caroline Islands, mid way between Honolulu and Manila. Dr.

Coulter went there at the end of May with joint in structions from the Pacific Science Board of the National

Research Council, the US Trust Territory and the US Navy. He will map land use and land tenure for the first time on Pingelap, which is administered as a Trust Territory by the US for the United Nations.

Before leaving for Pingelap, Dr.

Coulter said that, traditionally, the native populations of the Pacific Islands were restricted to subsist ence level by infanticide, abortion and tribal wars. But when missionaries arrived early in the 19th century they insisted that these practices be abolished. Physicians and nurses also arrived, and more and more children lived to grow up.

The result was serious over population on some islands in re lation to the available food.

Dr. Coulter said that before World War 11, the British Government took 2,000 underfed natives from the Gilbert Islands and settled them on vacant islands in the Phoenix Group.

“But the trouble now is that there are no more vacant islands that are habitable,” he said.

“Overpopulation is serious in American Samoa. When the United States occupied the Eastern Samoan islands in 1900, the native popula tion was 5,000. It is now 14,000. In 1953, 500 young Samoan men were taken to Hawaii as a relief measure.

They are now working on sugar cane and pineapple plantations and in other jobs.”

Dr. Coulter was born in Ireland, the son of a Methodist parson.

Dr. Coulter.