Tropicalities

Pacific Islands Monthly

Magazine Section

Gilbertese: Initiative

And Initials

MiE Gilbertese, a virile type of . Micronesian, finding their own chain of atolls somewhat over owded, are spreading slowly and ietly into other archipelagoes.

There now are Gilbertese com mities in Phoenix, Ocean, Nauru, ji and Solomon Islands. The most sent move is into the under pulated Solomons, where the atoll Lk are making the difficult ab stinent to new living conditions posed by mountainous islands. It not generally realised that atoll -3d people get the shock of their es when they first see hills and sh-water streams. [The first emigration movement Gilbertese was to the small oenix group. The Phoenix atolls ;• not very attractive, but the glish officials who directed the we in the Thirties were quite ;husiastic about their Phoenix ands Settlement Scheme. 7hat was what they called it at »t —but I remember that they rriedly changed it to Phoenix mds Settlement Plan. The son? The convenient American )it of calling things by their ;ials had invaded the Pacific; I the proper young men of the tish Colonial Office couldn’t ;rate the implications . . . R.

I Record To Be Pleased

About

HIRTY years as a Supreme Court judge is a pretty notable record it’s exceptional when service is given to one of the nger Islands territories. In Port resby, in April, the legal fession gave a dinner for Mr. tice Gore to celebrate the 30th liversary of his elevation to the ch in the Supreme Court of >ua. orn in Goondiwindi, Queensland, 1888, Mr. Justice Gore served as )ciate to Sir Samuel Griffiths, after being admitted to the . in Brisbane, went to the ntory as the first Crown Law cer for Papua in 1924. e was appointed Judge of the reme Court in Papua in 1928, ge of the Supreme Court cf oia-New Guinea in 1945, and :e then has been Senior Puisne ge.

Mr. Justice Gore served in World War I with an artillery unit and he was Deputy Commonwealth Crown Solicitor in South Australia when the Territory Administration was suspended in World War 11.

Those Snakes In The Grass

NEW GUINEA’S Long Island, about 80 miles east of Madang, which was snake-free before World War 11, is now infested by the reptiles which Japanese soldiers brought in for food.

One of the crates of snakes which the Japanese troops imported was

smashed and snakes escaped and became the forbears of the present snake population on the island.

An Administration agricultural patrol which recently reported the presence of the snakes said they were not worrying the natives of Long Island.

Quite a few of the many islands around the territory are free of snakes.

Oceania’S Upward

Population Trend

rTTHE United Nations Organisation X has just published its latest edition of the Statistical Year book, which gives the facts on just about anything anybody wants to know.

Its figures on population trends are interesting. For instance it says world population is now more than 2,737 millions, with Asia (excluding the USSR) the continent with the largest population (more than half the world total), and Oceania (Australia, NZ, the island territories and dependencies in the Pacific and the four trust territories of Nauru, New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and Western Samoa) the least densely populated continent.

From 1950-56 world population increased at an annual rate of 16 per cent., which also happened to be the same rate as for Asia. But Oceania got top world score with an annual rate of increase of 2.3 per cent., compared with the world’s lowest, 0.8 per cent, for Europe.

Oceania’s population is given as 15.1 millions.

Shirts Like Dad Made

Newcastle (nsw) chamber of Commerce, In April, was intrigued by a request from Mr. J. Mason, of Associated Gold Mines, Vatukoula, Fiji, for some “steelworkers’ shirts” of the same kind he bought in Newcastle, 23 years ago. Mr. Mason asked the Chamber to get him a quote for a dozen, and the gentlemen pro mised to “happily oblige”. Mr.

Mason described a steelworkers’ shirt as being of “grey flannel, long sleeves, two pockets”, and said he last saw them on display in a Newcastle store in 1935.

Morons Let Loose

r[E Islands in the past have never had much problem with vandalism, probably because the types responsible for acts of vandalism aren’t usually the pioneering kind.

But the Islands are changing in many ways. Recent reports of vandals tearing up shrubs in some P-NG war cemeteries are now

hpine matched with similar occurrences in Fiji, where r-'arauders lately have been uprooting and destroying plants in the Suva general cemetery, and scribbling across the visitors’ book they he r ecentl < y ln added fictitious names to the book, all with the address, “Mental Hospital”.

That Early Morning Boost

riERE is evidence by implication that the Cook Islands Administration is having trouble with some of its employees in late arlivals on the job in the morning, as seen in a recent official anncuncement that employees are to be given some assistance in this respect. The assistance takes the form of the sounding of a siren at thr Avarua transport pool at 6.30 a.m. on work-days.

There is nothing to suggest that the trouble is in any way associated with the persistent manufacture of “bush beer” as shown in recent court statistics (there were 70 convictions last year), but there is a

theory circulating in the Cook Islands capital that there could be a possible link. There seems to be scope here for some learned pro fessor from the outside world to carry out another survey.— JPS.

Inclined To The Left

A FIRM stand on the left hand /I rule-of-the-road is at last being taken in Rarotonga, judging by notices recently appearing in the Cook Islands daily news sheet. Until now cyclists—there are about 1,000 9 f , ° n * h , e . 21-mile-round island—and pedestrians have con sidered themselves completely free of any left-hand rule restrictions.

Not Many Fires, Anyway

, A NEW fire engme whlch r^ ently arrived at Nukualofa, Tonga, from England will have two uses—fighting fires, and carting water for other things such as washing <put the new produce mar ket building. Nukualofa has a very restricted public water supply sys tern and a good deal of water cart ing is needed.