tropicalities

[?] Agazine Section

I/Lonte Carlo Schemes In

South Seas

>EAS of creating a new Monte Carlo in the South Pacific have haunted various people for ny years.

Jearly half a century ago, rmans thought up something of i sort for Apia—the bare idea aid probably have caused isequent New Zealand Admini sters to faint away with horror nd got as far as toying with the ion of some kind of aerial tram y from ships to shore to cut the ding process short for feverishly jatient gamblers, lore recently, there has been a [lean vision of a new Monte do at (of all places) Easter ind. That was when there med to be a possibility that the nd might become an airport j. in a new transpacific line, ibtless commercial minds in lie pictured hordes of Americans,

h dollar-bulging pockets, stream

down from Honolulu to get nd their dollars. And Ecuador has I ideas about the Galapagos, lost of the schemes seem likely remain schemes, like the bright a of trying to turn Suva into tether Honolulu”—a suggestion t can be permanently guaranteed infuriate all the people in Fiji d are firmly sceptical of some of extravagant claims made on talf of unbridled tourism, lore “Monte Carlo” talk has ae at times from New Caledonia, I in May it was reported in Iney that the construction of a

-room hotel and gambling

Lno at Noumea may be started 5 year. lehind the Noumea scheme is Henri La Fleur, mining magnate I representative of New Cale iia in the French Senate.

I. La Fleur will be the biggest ikholder in a Franco-Australian ipany financing the business.

Iney tourist interests believe t the Monte Carlo idea may ourage hundreds of Australians ?o to Noumea.

3Gmic Strip Grievance

3E pot, it is said, once accused the kettle of being sooty. A parallel situation occurred in y, when a Sydney columnist ated a mildly scornful finger at English comic strip, his strip, referring to some sort goings-on at Sydney, talked ut taking a ferry from Circular ly to Farm Cove, where, it

recklessly added, there was a surf bathing pavilion. All very non sensical to Sydney people, of course.

But at the same time a Sydney comic strip was blithely guying Fiji in a precisely similar strain of absurdity. There was, for instance, a jibe at Suva’s All Nations Street which might possibly have been screamingly funny 40 years ago— and it must be nearly 40 years since there was an All Nations Street at Suva.

Then there was a merry quip about the displacing of the Fijians

by the Indians and it was clearly implied that, in Suva at least, the Fijians are now extinct. All good, clean fun—as long as it does not get to Fiji, where even Fijian tolerance sometimes becomes a little strained.

And there was an excruciating effort suggesting that tourists mistake a Fijian Rugby practice for a murderous brawl and rush for a policeman (Indian), plus some thing silly about the fire-walking rite.

One way and another, there is no room left for Sydney complaints about London misconceptions re garding Farm Cove.

Civil Servants Again

HAVING achieved city status, Suva has also arrived at the dignity of occasional massive traffic jams.

And when, soon after 4 on a May afternoon, a hold-up blocked all traffic between the Triangle and the Burns Philp Corner, with a sideline jam in Pier Street, irate drivers alleged that all the trouble must have been caused by a surge of homeward or clubward-bound civil servants driving out of the Post Office - Customs - Telephone Exchange cul-de-sac.

Pedestrian bystanders suggested that (a) civil servants should be kept at work longer; (b) if the Government had not formerly given civil servants advances at low interest rates to buy cars there would be fewer traffic snarls at 4 pm, and (c) if the traffic policemen were not civil servants too, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.

Dream Or Instinct?

WHEN a 24-years-old Rarotongan, employed as a tram conductor in New Zealand, dreamed that his elder brother wanted to see him urgently, he straightway caught the night express for the 425 miles’ journey from Wellington to Auck land.

He thought of breaking the journey to visit a sister at Te Awamutu, but the urgency of the dream had made so deep an impression that he completed the journey without stopping.

The brother (aged 26) appeared to be well, and on Saturday, April 16, the young men went together to the Auckland Domain, where the elder brother was to play in a Rugby football match.

During the match Opura Samuel staggered out of a scrum and fell.

When the ambulance arrived, he was dead.

“Amazing story” was the inevit able newspaper description, but few people who know anything of the strength and certainty of Islanders’ instincts in such matters will see anything unbelievable in the case.

Certainly the tale of Opura and Poreti Samuel would be accepted as a matter of fact by Polynesians, Fijians and others throughout the

Pacific Islands. And even today, few Maoris in New Zealand would regard it as extraordinary.

The Disappearing “Native”

GRADUALLY the term “native”, as applied to indigenous non- Europeans in their own countries is being weeded out in Polynesia and Fiji.

Dislike of the word can be traced directly to its misuse by many Europeans, Americans and, nowa days, by those Asiatics who feel impelled to say whatever they believe, rightly or wrongly, Euro peans say. - J* 1 ? . implication of perpetual inferiority that had become attached to the word “native” led to a good deal of Maori resentment in New Zealand many years ago, the feeling became so strong that the Government instituted a sort of heresy hunt to extirpate • offen sive epithet. “Native Affairs” became “Maori Affairs”

“Native Land Courts” became “Maori Land Courts”, and so on.

The New Zealand official attitude to “native” was promptly reflected in Western Samoa, where the Samoans did not like it anyway.

When the Central Medical School at Suva was turning out Native Medical Practitioners, the Samoans blandly spoke of their own graduates as Samoan Medical Practitioners. (This incidentally, followed the lead of Indian Medical Practitioners in Fiji).

SMP was firmly adhered to after the school had produced the new term “Assistant Medical Practi tioners”, and by that time, of course, TMP was current usage in Tonga.

Perhaps because, in the words of a former Governor of Fiji, the indigenous Fijians suffer from neither inferiority nor superiority complexes, it is only recently that educated Fijians have begun to note how and when the term “native” is applied. They them selves use it correctly in the sense of taukei, the People of the Land, but some aliens in Fiji with ideas of their own importance—usually Americans, Australians or New Zealanders—persist in abusing the

word. Years ago Native Affl became Fijian Affairs in governmental set-up, and soonef later this trend will became gem. .oy that time there will probi* be a campaign to weed “natl out of Melanesia and New Gui. —an idea which suggests profoc mental stress among newspa headline-writers in Australia.

Learning About The

Inscrutable Ea

WHEN the editor of PIM Sydney some weeks ago by s for Malaya, etc., one of Chinese crew carried his lugg aboard the ship.

At the end of the process, editor handed over the necess few shillings that is usually regarr as indispensable in this sort of bT ness.

To his amazement the searr slipped the money back into Robsonian jacket pocket, seized Robsonian hand, and shook Which left our editor somew) shaken and wondering if this wa: manifestation of a new concept: brotherly love in the East—or j contempt for Australian curreno

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manager, one Charles Matthies, who had landed there many years be fore. He was one of two sailors from a German survey vessel. The natives had playfully killed the other man, but had made Charlie Matthies their chief.

Charlie was a very colourful char acter. He worked the copra by casual gangs, one week from this end and the other from that end.

The natives, particularly the girls, are noted for their comeliness and have a touch of the Micronesian in their make-up. It was at Aua that I observed cases of Polyandry, not so common in the world. Several of the women had two husbands and lived alternately with them. The husbands were not necessarily brothers, which is the fraternal polyandry of parts of Asia.

Charlie Matthies was allowed to stay on at Aua, and he still was there in 1942, when the Japs at tacked. It is thought that he was killed by the Japs.

Four of his 12 children were brought to Brisbane by the Ameri cans. One (Emma) now about 32, is working in South Brisbane, and Rosie (23) is a housemaid in the home of a high Roman Catholic personage.

Rosie informed me they do not like Brisbane and would love to go back to their Paradise-like island— which I think is where Dr. S. M.

Lambert got the title of his book on the Pacific Yankee Doctor In Paradise. Rosie, with her black hair in plaits, is far better-looking than the Abo half-castes one sees in this northern capital. Quite an in teresting link!

The attached photograph of two Aua girls, dressed for the dance, was given to me by Mr. Matthies over 30 years ago.

You Won’T Need To Take

Your Change In Smokes

ONE of Prince Tungi’s missions during his visit to London in April was to make arrange ments for the minting of Tonga’s own coins.

This will mean (as reported in this issue) that the current Aus tralian coins will be withdrawn from Tonga’s currency.

A Nukualofa correspondent ex presses the hope that the new coinage, while emphasising the Kingdom’s independence, will also end the chronic shortages of change in Tonga’s shops.

Often, he writes, matches, sweets and cigarettes are handed over the counters instead of coins. The system is certainly good business for the traders, but not so good for the customers.