Islanders Moving
p. 81 · Read in the full issue
To Noumea
Prom Our Noumea Correspondent NEW CALEDONIA is like a magnet to people of the Wallis Islands (French) although their group is nearer to Fiji and Samoa than to New Caledonia.
In 1954, 243 Wallis people went to New Caledonia, where they find life more attractive than at home.
There is also a considerable move ment of young people from Tahiti to Noumea—a fact which seriously disturbs those who see it as giving still more opportunities to the Chinese in Tahiti.
On the other hand, of the 254 Italian workers who were in New Caledonia in 1953, only about 70 are left. Most of the others have re turned to Italy and some have gone to Australia.
The Tonkinese are likely to pro vide a major problem in the future.
Only about 50 have applied for re patriation in the ship Skaubryn in January, although failure to apply means loss of the right of free re patriation.
As these people, like most Asiatics, multiply at a fantastic rate by the standards of other races, and as so many of them, unfortunately, form an undesirable element in the com munity, it seems that the problem will become progressively worse.
New Caledonia’s present total population is estimated at 64,500.