The Editors' Mailbag

Memories of

Queen "Emma"

In your issue of January, 1956, you give a splendid account of Mrs.

Forsayth (“Queen Emma”). She was a fine type of woman with all the good characteristics of the well born Samoan women. Some of her relatives are still alive in Apia— Jack Gascoigne’s wife was a distant cousin.

When “Queen Emma” left Rabaul in 1912 she travelled to Sydney on the NDL SS Prinz-Waldemar. With her, were two very fashionable young ladies, supposedly her daughters.

Emma had so much influence with the skipper that he re-arranged the after-part of the ship—almost all the poop-deck was screened off for them to discourage unwanted visitors.

In those days, Clunn & Sons were t,he NDL agents in Samarai, but this trip their outside man was Gorari.

Mr. Leach asked me to do the stevedore work; and thus I man aged to see the family, the “Queen” and the two girls.

I did some small job for them— I think it was mailing a letter — and they were most grateful. Emma did not look at all well, and she was sure she was making her last trip. The girls were full of the joy of life and although they had been abroad quite a lot, the pleasures of seeing Sydney again acted as a tonic.

I also knew her son, J. M. C.

Forsayth—as BP & Co. was his agent in Sydney—and I met him there when I was in the merchandise department in Bridge Street. A par ticular friend of his was Mr. W. C.

Foskett, who did all the Sydney buy ing for Forsayth, Kirchner and Co. (later JMCF).

After World War I, I had to visit Hamburg fairy often, and I made inquiries at the office of the DH & PG regarding the whereabouts of various German nationals who had left Samoa and New Guinea prior to the war.

One of the clerks who was on leave in Hamburg when war broke out, and who knew the Kolbe family very well, told me that the two of them had passed on at Monte Carlo as you have described; but few, if any, de tails reached Hamburg. Mr. H. R.

Wahlen also visited their office from time to time and we met at the Alster Pavilion on the lake-front for morning coffee.

Those morning parties were most interesting. The Germans were cer tain that eventually, through the League of Nations, they would re gain their pre-war possessions.

Anyway, the DH & PG, and other

companies which knew Emma Coe Forsayth, all had the kindest memories of her, and were anxious to know what had happened to the family, and to J. M. C. Forsayth himself.

On one of my visits to Rabaul I tried hard to ascertain what had happened to the family, but to little avail. In Samoa, a number of folk claimed relationship with Emma, but my inquiries led nowhere.

I am, etc.,

To Ague A.

England, August, 1957.

Why They Called it

"Sunlight"

A former South Seas merchant, now resident in Europe, refers to the article in the June “PIM” on Lord Leverhulme, founder of the world wide Unilever: Mr. W. H. Lever did not make that first £l,OOO quite so easily as your article indicates.

“Willie” Lever, as he was known in Bolton, Lancs., lived in the Parish of a relation of mine. Although Willie was not of the English Church, the vicar and he were very friendly.

Lever’s relations, all in their own way, have been very successful. The Bolton Evening News is owned by one of them, known —or was then — as Lever Tillotson.

The “brother” (who provided half the title of Lever Bros.) died soon after “Sunlight” was marketed, and Mrs. “Willie” Lever was responsible for that now famous word. The story is that when Lever produced his first batch of soap (which, by the way, was made in the kitchen clothes-boiler), they were stumped for a name. They sat in that room cogitating, and had all sorts of ideas.

Suddenly, a ray of bright sunshine came in at the window, and Mrs.

Lever said, almost involuntarily, “Oh Willie, call it Sunlight”—and he did.

The word caught on, and is now known all over the world.

Lord Leverhulme had one son, Hulme, he married close to my family. Their son is the present holder of the title. I met Hulme Lever and his wife once in New Guinea, when he was making a trip around the Pacific in the Kulum bangra. He went into the Post Office, and I heard him ask if he could “see some postage stamps.” His wife said, “Hulme, ask the man for £1 worth of various stamps and don’t be so foolish —he does not have time to bother showing you stamps.”

Anyw r ay, great tribute must be paid to the “old man.” He did not, in those days, employ anyone but the men from his own country; and

they proved themselves so able tb they tied up the oils and fats of t English-speaking world. We all p tribute, in one form or another, the day when his wife said, “C Willie, call it Sunlight!”

The "NG" and "K"

In Tongan

A recent letter from a forrt resident of Tonga: I note, in June PIM (page 3 that Prince Tu’gi has said that name should not be spelled Tugi, T Tungi. I can only say that he is modern. I knew his father very w and I still have letters from lu all signed Tu’gi. Your comm' about Tonga’s postage stamps correct, except that the word is,, was, spelled TO’GA.

Tu’gi’s father was very annno: when the spelling of Nu’ualofa \ altered to Nukualofa. He hated letter “K” as much as he dislil the “N”, and argued that the troduction of both spoiled the c rect pronunciation of the langua But in those days, life in To’ga t not so modern, and Tu’gi was i a happy-go-lucky man who lived the same place as his ancestors, s did not want to go rushing arou A game of billiards at the Club, i some good reading matter, were idea of a happy life.

I have studied Polynesian dial* quite a lot, and the introduction the “N” and “K” is fairly modi and the result of slovenly talk. Th is a word in Samoan, Fatale, wh

(Continued on page 163)

> now become Fakale, and both i sound and expression are not y coarse, but harsh.

Iven the Maoris know that the ” was introduced: but by whom y cannot say. ’hat awful word for boy, Kanaka, in example of how a really nice ynesian word can be murdered: ually, it is Tanata, with a soft ression. f Tu’gi wants to alter the spell of his country’s words, it is his i affair; and if Samoa follows :. then there will be some awful nunciations —i.e., Mulifanua will ame Mulifanuka, Vaitele will be le Vaikele, and so on. But in outside world, very few will ible, because the Polynesian ects are known to so few, and people in Australia and New land don’t care a hoot how any nder spells his name. 11 the same, I have a high regard ambitious young Prince Tu’gi I hope he succeeds in his pro nme.

rections Galore

r. lan S. Reid, Condominium lical Officer and Mission hospi superintendent on Tanna (in New Hebrides), has kindly

written to us at length to bring us up-to-date on affairs on his island —rainfall, population, industry, etc This information will be incor porated in the next edition of the Pacific Islands Year Book.

But Dr. Reid has a lot of interest ing things to say about the natives and they are worth repeating here For some reason the Tannese have been tagged as “superior”— just as the natives of the Papuan and the New Guinea Highlands were so tagged when first sighted (with little reason as it subsequently transpired).

The doctor says, in effect, that it’s nonsense to label the Tannese thus and he would like to know what is meant by the term, anyway.

He goes on: True, there are some fine physical types on this island but there are many more who are far from superior class—especially in the north Physically they do not compare with the natives of Futuna or Aneityum—and most of the natives on Tanna who are called upon for contract work are indeed from these other two islands.

The Tannese mentally are much duller— which may or may not be because they are heavy kava drinkers. If "superior class" refers to moral or ethical standards—well, I have been disgusted at times at the callousness and lack of sympathy that has been shown by Tannese for their sick. Tanna villages are also the dirtiest I have visited.

Now we know more about the Tannese. But we doubt whether what ails them can be attributed to kava drinking which is indulged

in to greater extent in the islands to the east. The New Hebrides is the western limit of the practice of kava drinking. ; Mr. T. A. Handford, BSIP Super intend: nt of Police, left Honiara with Mrs. Hadford in August on overseas leave.