The Editors' Mailbag

Concerning the Worms

of Mangaia

Our editorial dictum was: “No— nothing more about Mangaia’s worms.” We were sure that oiir readers do not care if Mangaia is permanently bereft of worms.

But the editorial sanctum is per sistently attacked by Edwin Gold, of Mangaia. “I did not say that there were no worms on Mangaia,” he shouts. “What I said was that Mangaia needs more worms.” OK —Mangaia needs more worms.

“And you made me say that no co-operative enterprise (presumably anywhere in the world) has suc ceeded,” he wails. ‘What I said was that no co-operative enterprise ever has succeeded on Mangaia.”

All right. The slate now is wiped clean. Let there be silence. (For new readers: Mangaia is the most southerly of the Cook Islands.

It produces oranges, a few tomatoes and a tough and argumentative type of trader.)

Old-Timers

Old-timer Nixonwestwood is back in London again, after investigat ing possibilities of cocoa-trading in West Africa. But his heart still is in the South Seas, where he spent the more virile years of his life.

“Just heard from two old New Guineans,” he writes, unconsciously adopting the current name for the inmates of the Trust Territory.

“Percy Woods is in Brisbane, and Norman Izod is at Sewa Sewa, near Samarai. Norman was a partner of Henry Dexter, and I calculate that he got there in 1911, and so must have been 40 years in the Terri tory. I hope he writes that book some day—he must have seen some strange changes.”

Incidentally, a book of reminis cences by Nixonwestwood himself is at present being looked over by an American publisher.

“Congratulations on taking over The Fiji Times,” adds Nixonwest wood. “Fifty years ago, I met the man who started The Fiji Times — Griffiths, a most kindly editor, with a paternal beard. He used to print Fiji’s early postage stamps.”

Colonel Sir Charles

Ponsonby: A Warning

“I note that one of the leaders of the Royal Empire Society, Sir Charles Ponsonby, is about to visit Fiji, on his way to Australia and New Zealand,” says a London corre

spondent.

“I hope that someone in the South Pacific will give the gentle man a few details of how Britain

has fallen down on her job of de veloping the resources of the Solomon and New Hebrides islands, and of how she connived at the transfer of Indonesia from the re sponsible Dutch to the irresponsible and unpredictable Indonesians.

“Above all, I hope that, when he is given the details, he will be able to get the right angle on the sorry picture. Will he see the Asiatic settlements in the South Pacific Islands in their true focus? I doubt it.

“I will wager anything that he will attend some pleasant tea parties in Sydney and Melbourne, and return to tell us that all is well in the South Seas, and that you will be saved from Asiatic in vasion by grateful recipients of the Colombo Plan ”

Where Charles Darwin

Hunted Pigs

We have word of that veteran LMS missionary, Rev. Harold J. E.

Short, now retired happily in a lovely place called Paira Point, near Rigo, on the northeast coast of Papua. He did yeoman service in the Papuan mission field; but we remember him best as a skilled writer of tales.

“My place is 100 hilly acres of freehold, beside the bay where the Beagle anchored, and Charles Darwin came ashore and shot wild paira (pigs)”, he writes.

“Our reference books show that HMS Beagle was in that area over 100 years ago.

One of Those Moments

It was sad to read in your July PIM of the passing of John Ryan —he enjoyed life (writes an Old Territorian).

I remember an occasion when John was at Aropa Plantation, Kieta. He came in to Kieta to meet the Siar, which was tied up at the old Kieta wharf—she then was running via ports from Rabaul.

Ted Bishton was then the radio officer at Kieta.

In the afternoon we celebrated the birthday of Patrol Officer Ward —he had one every month. During the celebrations, John Ryan fell into the “drink”—and as he went over his white helmet fell back on the deck.

There was a lot of scrambling by the on-lookers, but their assist ance did not contribute much to the rescue of John. Eventually, John crawled up the side of the stone wharf, and on to the jetty.

Ted Bishton replaced the helmet on John’s head. After a while John felt the helmet, and discovered that it was quite dry. He said:

“I couldn’t even have gone un»j the water.” Actually, he wn down so far that we thought would never come up again.

Joyita's Ex-Owner is

Finnish, not Polynesian

What’s in a name? Frequem more than appears on the surfat Reviewing that volume Polynesian folk-lore, Voices on Wind, we referred to the autM Katherine Luomala, as “ps Polynesian herself.” (See Jt PIM). Whereupon an old frie who knows Miss Luomala w chides us gently: “Katherine Luomala is a h fessional anthropologist, trained the United States, and —although resident of Hawaii—anything like a Polynesian you never lr seen. Her name is Finnish, shu the child of Nordics, and she thin and blonde. However, can be excused for thinking t Luomala is Polynesian.”