Do You Remember ?

From PJM of 20 Years ago.

AT this time in 1935, the South Pacific—probably because of growing Italian and German

ambitions in Europe—slowly began

to emerge from the Depression.

Certainly it did not emerge very far before war conditions smote it,

but most commodity prices began to

move from the starvation levels

they had occupied in the previous

four years. There were no “rich

planters” then—but they managed

to exist. And, of course, there were some rich goldminers.

Here are some other extracts from our issue of April, 1935: Reorganisation of the Administration of Norfolk Island was ur-der way an Advisory Council was to replace an Executive Council: the Administrator to consult the Advisory Council on matters of public expenditure. These and other reforms were expected to “remove a cer tain antagonism against the Administra tor”. * * * Queen Salote was planning a trip to England and was expected to take with her as a present to King George V, on his Silver Jubilee, Tul Malila, the Royal Tortoise that Captain Cook is supposed to have given to one of Queen Salote’s ancestors. (Somehow neither the visit nor the gift seems to have eventuated.

George V’s grand.daughter, Queen Eliza beth 11, admired the Royal tortoise during her visit to Nukualofa in December, 1953). * * ♦ What happened to the 4,000 or 5,000 confessed Indonesian and Eurasian com munists who, in 1935, were living in special camps far uo the Digoel River in Dutch New Guinea? In April, 1935, we had a long article about these people whom the Dutch had marooned in what was described as the “centre of the great untamed island of New Guinea”. * ♦ ♦ The Union Company was calling tenders for a 3,500 tons vessel for the Auckland- Fiji - Tonga - Samoa run. (When she eventuated she was called “Matua”, but in the meantime the service was carried on by a series of makeshifts. The de

pression years had been a period of ship withdrawals from that part of the Pacific —presumably New Zealanders were not eating: so many bananas in those days). * * * A Hollywood party of 60, including Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, were reported to be en route to Tahiti to film “Mutiny on the Bounty”. ♦ * * Fiji was having a gold boom “in spite of what the Fiji Government has done to discourage speculations”. (Discourage ment unspecified). £lO shares in the Aloha Syndicate, which had an option over a block held by Costello interests in the centre of Tavua field, had soared to £430. * * ♦ In the same month the directors of New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd., had decided to write down capital by about 75 per cent, —from £ 4,472,331 to £1,118,081.

Port Moresby was talking about a water supply from the Laioki River to replace the storage tank and the queer roof catchment on the hill behind the town.

But some residents were cautious—it was premature, they said, for a small popu lation of 350 to saddle itself with a debt of £20,000. (Population of Moresby is now about s,ooo—they waited until after the war for the Laioki supply—and it probably cost more than £20,000.) * * * There were indications, we said, that the Samoan Mau was breaking up as a political body. Many of the Chiefs were withdrawing their support; others were only luke-warm. * * * A prophecy that did not come true: "Though the depressing effect of whale oil flooding the copra market is only one of the factors that tends to lower the price of the Sooth Seas principal product, Pacific Islands planters will be cheered to learn that the recent indiscriminate slaughter of whales had decimated the sluggish leviathans and that within a decade whale oil competition will be nothing more than a dark memory”. * * * Fashion Note: “Clothes come to us classically simple in design, shrieking sophistication and poise, bouffant, billowy and ‘Little Women-ish’, with the eternal feminine in every fold.”*