Do You Remember ?

From PIM of 20 Years Ago.

IN May, 1936, you could buy a

“light-weight tropical suit” for

79/6, but copra was only £l2 per ton in London. At the same time we had the first breath of the

air-age when giant aircraft began

to span oceans. On the debit side were war jitters as Mussolini got busy in Abysinnia and Hitler made

fire-eating speeches in Berlin.

Here are some extracts from FIM of May, 1936: That casino for Noumea! It made its first appearance in print in that May of 1936 when we announced that a company had been formed to establish one to be run along the lines of the famous Monte Carlo casino. It was expected that it would entice a lot of tourists to Noumea. (Of course the casino has not eventuated, although the idea has been resur rected on numerous occasions and still sounds faintly wicked to Anglo-Saxon ears. If there is any moral difference between running a casino and permitting lotteries on the super scale now indulged in in Australia we would like to have it explained to us). 5*- ❖ Prince Tuku'aho, second son of Queen Salote of Tonga, died in Nukualofa, aged 16. * * * Father Anthony Cranssen, a young Dutch priest, was sentenced to five years imprison ment for arson. Following a conflict with Lutheran missionaries in the Ramu district of New Guinea the previous year, the missionary had sent a party of natives to burn down two native houses. Commenting, we deplored the sectarianism that was creeping into missionary work as rival missionaries competed for "souls" in newly opened-up areas of New Guinea; and also had something to say about the severity of the sentence and asked: Is it not time some official notice was taken of certain sentences imposed by the Chief Judge (Wanliss) of this jury-less Supreme Court of New Guinea . . . they have a quality that is

not consistent with the decisions of Bni judges elsewhere". * * ❖ "Because of the difficult internatio siuation (Mussolini's grab at Abysinnia) tt was uncertainty in the copra market, observers, on statistics, feel that prices she go higher before the end of the year". (N 1936, price was £l2/2/6 per ton, cif Lend * * * There were seven air companies registe in New Guinea —Guinea Airways, Holden's Transport, Carpenter Airways, Stephen s serv P.A.T. Service, Mendham Service and Parer; between them they had 40 airc ranging in size from a Junkers 3-engined ( to a Fox Moth. At that time there was hei controversy as to whether or not air tr. port should be brought under Government trol—an air-merger it was called. * * * "It has been reported that Japanese inter will build a canal through that portion Siam that lies athwart the stem of the Ma Peninsula ... try to visualise what c such a canal would have on Far Eastern traffic." * * * A "huge crowd of proud citizens, awee wonder and amaze" turned out in San Franc to see the flying-boat "China Clipper" I on the first flight that "bridged the N Pacific". The Clipper called at Honolulu, way, Wake, Guam, and Manila on its wa' Macao on the Chinese mainland. The f was called the "most marvellous developi of 1936". * >; : * "Seeking more efficient control over ga and cane pests, the Fiji Department of < culture has imported (from Honolulu) 67 f of the Bufo marinus species. The experii is the result of a suggestion made in Legislative Council by the Hon. Alport Ba> The first shipment of toads has gone) Lautoka which is said to be an ideal bree ground." (All those millions of present Fiji toads from 67 great-great-great-etc. gi daddies and grandmummies!)