'Pardon Me, Miss Simpson!’

R. W. Robson Employs a Social Device Among Fiji Pioneers

One evening in November the residents of Savu Savu ( Fiji’s most promising new port) assembled in large numbers in Messrs .

Lepper’s modernised hotel, to enjoy a dance.

THE array of European and part- European beauty was remark able, and the gentlemen of the party enjoyed themselves

thoroughly. The reasons? They are naturally a very happy community in this area of Southeast Vanua Levu; and the young women con siderably outnumber the young men.

Consequently, dancing partners were in some demand. I am no dancer but, in the circumstances, my aged legs were put to un accustomed use. So I used a new technique.

Every time I trod on a feminine toe, or got out of step, I said to my various, miscellaneous partners: “Please pardon me, Miss Simpson!”

In 70 per cent, of cases I was right —she was a Simpson. • In the Savusavu area, there are several family groups—especially Simpsons, Leppers, Fentons and Whippys—which stem from pioneer planters and traders of 60 or 70 years ago; and one meets members of these families all over Fiji. I was especially intrigued with the Simpsons—the prettiest girls, the heartiest drinkers, and the liveliest musicians seemed in nearly every case to belong to that clan.

Finally, I met a lively lady who, despite a healthy accumulation of years, danced with irresistible zest, and told stories in a way that filled me with envy.

When I discovered that she was the senior Mrs. Simpson present— mother, or aunt or cousin or in-law to half the people in that big lounge—l “dated” her for a photo graph the following morning—and the above is the result.

Mrs. Ethel Anne Simpson is an active shipowner—in fact, I may describe her as the woman who took the hoodoo off the Joyita.

After the notorious little ship had been refloated and repaired, in mid -1958, she was purchased by Mrs.

Simpson, to be run between Suva and Savusavu alternately with the Taviani. She was only six weeks in service when she again ran on a reef. Mrs. Simpson’s son, Sidney, came over from Australia and salvaged and repaired her, and she resumed the service late in October, Savusavu is on the way to great ness. It awaits only the opening up of the new country around the Hibiscus Road, the completion of the deep-water wharf in that sheltered harbour, and the com pletion of a new road link with Labasa.

And the descendants .of those famous pioneers who went to Vanua Levu before the dawn of 1900 will have a lot to do with the new era.

Mrs. E. A. Simpson.