tropicalities

Magazine Section

Pia Down Below

P[E difficulties of “English, a£ she is spoke” are illustrated by the following story going the ounds lately in Honiara, BSIP.

It should be noted that natives onfuse some of the “F” and “P” ounds).

It appears that a native, William la (rhymes with fire) had occasion o telephone from the Central tospital to a friend at the Rove )epot, home of the bustling Fire ervice.

No verbatim record of the onversation exists but it is said 3 have gone something like this: Rove: “‘Who speaking?”

Hospital: “Pia. here”.

Rove: “Where Pia?”

Hospital: “Long Central Hospital”.

Not so very long afterwards, the ospital peace was shattered by the rrival of the fire engine and elmeted men who jumped off the agon demanding to know where le fire was.

They were no doubt sorry to be eprived of the chance to tackle blaze, but not so sorry as William, ho never did get through to his lend in the excitement.—A.

The “Bomb Gone” Special

ITE have received the Special, T Bomb issue of the “Mid-Pacific News” —published on Christmas ilapd by the forces stationed there >r the H-bomb tests.

This was the 290th issue of the aper, and claimed to be the “only

English” paper in the world to carry the news under a dateline of May 15.

“Mid-Pacific News” gives these details about the event: The bomber was Valiant XD 818 of No. 49 Squadron, piloted by Wing Commander K. G. Hubbard, OBE, DEC. The aircraft had a crew of five—the others being a Co-pilot, a Navigator-Plotter, Navigator- Radar (the bomb aimer) and Aero- Electronics officer.

The delicate task of stowing the bomb into the bomb-bay of the Valiant was completed by dawn of the 15th. The order for take off was given around 1000 hrs., local time.

“The gleaming white aircraft taxied out on to the runway. Only the knowledge of its sinister load touched a graceful take-off with suspense, so nonchalantly did she rise off the tarmac and climb in to the morning sky.

“Years of planning and months of heavy labour were now being put to the final test; and Wing Com mander Hubbard, holding the plane on its arrow-straight course, formed a triangle of heavy responsibility with the Task Force Commander and the Scientific Director watching from below.

“The pilot had begun his running commentary, his voice coming through clear and unhurried. The trial run-in completed, the giant V bomber turned north again to take position for the live approach run.

“In the ships, Task Force person nel and official observers from Aus tralia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, turned their backs to the point in the distant sky where the explosion was planned to take place. Then it was ‘Bomb Gone!’ (10.36 hours local time) fol lowed by the count down.

“Its bomb released, the Valiant made its carefully-rehearsed eva sive manoeuvre and swept away on all the power of its four jet engines.”

The Maori Way On The

Queen’S Highway

POLYNESIANS are well known for their light-hearted approach to life. You notice this characteristic even on Rarotonga’s roads, where Cook Islanders use cycles and motor cycles in ways that would never oc cur to the average European.

Before Rarotonga’s road rules were tightened up recently, one sometimes saw as many as four people being caried on one motor cycle. A more common sight was a man carrying his wife on the pillion and the baby on the petrol tank.

The Law now states that no more than two people must be carried on one motor cycle, but it does not mention cargo, and resourceful pillion riders sometimes carry a 1 cwt. sack of vegetables across their shoulders, or a brace of bamboo fishing rods that protrude several feet to the rear.

The barefooted ladies are also in trepid motor cyclists, and one day I met a lass struggling out of her jacket as she rode her machine “hands off” along the main road.

Polynesian ideas on how a push bike should be ridden are unique.

Some youths use one bare foot for steering and the other for pedalling, while the idle hands are thrust deeply into the pockets. Children ride three to a cycle, one facing aft and sitting on the handlebars, one loafing in the saddle, and the third,

or the carrier, doing the pedalling. q . coung girl, a solo rider, rode off” while she happily c ed at a four foot length of r cane. Solo cyclists, apparently to*.; weary to pedal, are towed by L ting horses. •hirtless boys wearing frangipani < .lands on their heads canter along < coastal road on horses. Most bareback, but some use old copra sacks for saddles, and pieces , * rape serve for bridles and bits.

Btirrups are not considered neces sary. dong the back roads one some ices meets a horse-drawn sled, hough snow has never fallen on ny Rarotonga, and the old horse uggy, elegant with old car wheels, ill in evidence. The number f Maori-owned trucks in the Cook ads still continues to increase, it is evident that many years v; ii pass before travel on local roads becomes the hum-drum affair it is in other countries.

W. H. Percival

Take Yarn From Savait

V T would perhaps be fitting if we o';lowed! the American custom ; gave this item the title of “Ser in Paradise.” But be that as ay, the photograph herewith and tory came from Mr. D. H. Lee, "aipouli Boys’ School, Savai’i, rn Samoa. He hopes to in i' ? bigger and better snake stories other parts of the Pacific.

Lee says that he had been by Apia for some snakes, and boys had brought this one pic ■ d in from the plantation. There no ship to Apia for some days L'o he did not bother to feed it ■o snake, when caught, had a In the middle which he took a rat it had swallowed shortly b re capture.

' le snake was duly despatched to arrived in good condition, but ■ a week later. It was reported : r a post-mortem) that the lump not a rat that the snake had T allowed, but that the snake was pregnant and had died in child- T venty-four young snakes, several iches long, were found inside the a other, some of the infants being u in knots. Mr. Lee concludes -au these) knots prevented their > Tth and had been caused by rough handling when the boys were cap turing her.

The young lad in the photo with - ne expectant snake is Mr. Lee’s son is said to have an affinity for I ijIlaK6S« (Snakes dying in childbirth was a /iew one to us—we had imagined s , laid e 9QS. However, our do VnS^ m l ay - S that a few snak ™ ™ woduce their young alive; and that, further, snakes that are nor

mally oviparous, in cap tivity sometimes are not, but instead produce live offspring.)

White-Collar Dogs

A PLAINTIVE Notice made its appearance recently in the Gov ernment establishments in Honiara, BSIP. It was to the effect that dogs would be allowed in Government offices, only if they were under proper control.

The Secretariat has long housed a varied collection of pets which appear un expectedly under desks, or lurk behind doors. Mostly, they slumber happily, but

occasionally something, or someone, triggers off a mass-movement among them, and a convoy of dogs of all shapes and sizes, hurtles along corridors and through various offices.

The most recent movement was carried out by more than half a

dozen dogs; hence the notice.-

K.

The Flats Are Ghost-Free—

But The Owner Is Haunted!

FOR several weeks Suva tongues were wagging about the eight headed monster alleged to in habit a block of flats in Edinburgh Drive. Others said that the haunt was a poltergeist.

All three flats were unoccupied, so proving, said the waggers, that people daren’t live there. An Indian woman had actually seen the monster, they said; it was so big it filled a whole room.

Two Fiji Times reporters and a friend spent a night in the flats hoping to see the apparition.

Said Mr. Dave Mason, “We were disturbed only by about 200 curious sightseers. There was a large wel coming committee when we arrived and people blundered about the building all night.”

Mr. G. M. Nair, whose firm man ages the fiats for the owner, Mr.

Abdul Samat, said he had had numerous enquiries from people who heard that the rents had been

drastically reduced.

“The rumour may have been started in an attempt to force the rents down,” he said.

Previous tenants had left because they wished to move to other accom modation. One had gone overseas.

A new tenant moved into one of the flats shortly after the Press investigation, but he declared that he was going to leave, too.

“It’s the trippers,” he complained.

“They’re all over the place. They press their noses against the windows, they stomp around the yard, or just sit in the sun and

Look.”

So the flats really are haunted —but not by the supernatural— M.

With An “L” Of A Difference

A FEW months ago, PIM ran a< article about Telefomin, Ne< Guinea, as it was about 20 year ago. In the course of the article and in some photographs, the ex traordinary pubic coverings of locs natives were mentioned. These covei ings are gourds 12 to 15 inches Ion?

The photograph of these native had such a devastating effect oc our linotype operators, that in th original proof, these covering emerged as “public coverings”- Not a bad description, at that.

In Fiji, however, the profession : affected quite differently—must t on the other side of the Date Linu or something.

In the issue of the Fiji Times, o July 1, there was a leading articl about public lavatories —Fiji, a cit) of 35,000 or so, just hasn’t got “Ladies’ or “Gents.’’ The article was headed quite simply: “PUBIi

Lavatories.’’

Our sympathies are with th editor.

SOMETHING IN RETURN. Each man in t[?] community contributed £5 to build this res[?] house in the village of Kaparoka, Rigo Distric[?] Papua. They earned the money by sendin[?] smoked fish and vegetables to the Koki mark[?] near Port Moresby.

The rest-house (for the accommodation officers on patrol and for other Europeans) of fibro with a galvanised iron roof, louvre[?] windows, a shower room, equipped kitchen an[?] tables and chairs. The rest-house was official opened by Patrol Officer R. G. Twigg a coup[?] of months ago.