Tropicalities

Pacific Islands Monthly

Magazine Section

Where Is That Secret Bunker?

OMEWHERE in the jungle fast -1 nesses of the interior of Espiritu Santo—Santos to you merican ex-servicemen, correction, tsrans —there is a secret wartime adquarters that no one can find except maybe some of you terans! And there’s probably a mdy-sized tip awaiting someone io will produce the goods on a

>-cure-no-pay basis.

It seems that the scrap boys are i its trail. They have a hunch — ■thing more, no secret maps, faded lotos—that there may be a lot commercially valuable scrap ing round that spot. They say that any people on the island have arched for it, and some think that may have bsen secretly found.

The story is that when the Jap lese were advancing through the ■lomons the Americans made plans r a last-ditch stand at Santo, lere they had accumulated huge icks of equipment. A secret com

mand post was established —using entirely American military labour.

Trucks driven by the “locals” with construction materials went so far and no further. They handed over to American military drivers who completed the journey, and when the bunker was completed consider able quantities of military stores, foodstuffs and clothing went in.

The scrap men figure that all this material would probably have been left where it stood, as it was in many other places, when the troops pulled out and they want to find it.

Only clue that someone might have found something is that Tonkinese and others still show up wearing brand new American military cloth ing, but the scrap men admit that there are probably numerous small dumps of materials still to be located in the jungle, and such clothing might have come from these.

What they want is at least a look at that last-ditch camp.

They Won't Argue

With This One IF Japan’s latest invention comes to Fiji it looks as though the die-hard supporters of the old system of spelling Fijian words will have to give ground.

The invention, which has been built and satisfactorily tested by professors of the electronics depart ment of Kyoto University, prints the spoken language directly in Roman letters —or in Japanese char acters if you prefer that model.

To perform this extraordinary feat it uses about 300 radio tubes and 600 transistors, and it operates on a phonetic system—so Fiji’s “q’s” will certainly be out, and the “Nadi’s” will automatically have their “n’s” inserted. It is said to be ruthlessly candid with the “Orstry leeun” accent, and only Scotsmen will be able to read off the brand of “English” used there.

Even so, it appears to have enormous potentialities in the South Pacific’s multi-lingual Islands.

Pacific Pottery —500 Years BC AN Auckland University team, together with Noumea museum authorities, is searching for ancient pottery on the Isle of Pines, south-east of New Caledonia.

The party of four New Zealanders, led by Mr. J. Golson, a history lecturer at the University, are en gaged in carrying out excavations on the south coast of the island until late February.

The expedition is the result of a find of pottery by an American team in 1948. Some of those finds were similar to pottery found in the past on New Caledonia which was proved to date back to 500 BC.

Bread—On the Quiet THE Rarotonga bakers will still be allowed to sell their bread on Sundays, but only before 7 a.m. and between 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.— and they won’t be allowed to blow their conch horns to advertise their wares in future.

That was the result of a debate at a recent Rarotonga Island Coun

cil meeting. Although bread has always been sold on Sundays, it was against the law. The law has now been amended.

Learning the Hard Way

THE most popular former method of seconded civil servants and other strangers learning the Cook Islands language the “sleeping dictionary” now appears to be “out”, at least officially. A thriving class of 40, mainly civil servants and their wives of well beyond the normal student age, has just com pleted a two-year language course with a 4i-hour written and oral examination.

Heading the graduates was Chief Judge Kay. Others mentioned: Chief Surveyor A. Bailey, Social Development Chief T. Muir and his wife, and other well known person alities, Messrs. A. Moreland, A.

Tucker, B. Lucy, O. Sullivan, and D.

McMahon.

The lecturer was Mr. Taira Rere.

Real, Honest-to-Goodness

Shipwrecked Sailors

r!ERE’S no doubt that a few years in the Islands leave a memory that time can never wash out. It’s the lotus touch.

Nobody who was aboard the Melusia alongside Makambo wharf one night in 1924 will forget the scene when the crew of the Mascot arrived.

They were fresh from the Santa Cruz group where they had been castaway for six weeks after the wreck of their schooner on the reef at Utupua, BSI.

Melusia had just arrived from Sydney with a bunch of goggle eyed tourists. Were those trippers thrilled when the Mascot’s men came aboard! Sunburnt, with eight weeks’ beards and clad in the flap ping remains of sailcloth trousers, trade singlets and Utupua-made leaf hats they spelled romance with a capital R. The tourists’ first night in the Islands and they met a ship wrecked crew!

“Come and have a drink sailor.

Tell us about the shipwreck.”

“Have dinner at our table, sail Here, your glass is almost empt l We were the lions of the event as passengers fell over each other entertain us, bombarding us wi questions and lapping up t answers. If Islands colour was wh they were looking for they got by the bucketful that night.

When Carpenter’s whaleboat car about 9 o’clock a couple of us we across to Tulagi in her and up the mess where we had kept o go-ashore clothes. After we had r moved the beards and stains travel we got ourselves up proper and went back aboard the Melus\ And what an anti-climax that wa In neatly-pressed pants, shlri ties and shiny shoes we were i different from any other of tl Melusia’s visitors. One of us W; even taken for a clerk from Level office!

The gilt was off the gingerbrea and we had to watch those of 01 shipmates who were still in costun getting the lion’s share of the part Still, I’m glad for the tourists sai that they got their money’s worl of local colour that Tulagi nigh

Bill Baverstoc

Switching To Bookies?

SOME intriguing advertisemen appear from time to time in tl Cook Islands News, and one j December must have left oversea readers wondering whether t h bookies are taking over financi: affairs associated with Rarotonga occasional beach horse-race mee ings.

Tenders were being called f< the purchase of the tote-house—ar the owner was to donate the prc ceeds of the sale to the Cripple Children’s Society.

On Personal Experiences r' the people of the Australia Islands’ Territories, Canben is a kind of hell hole of ovei paid, brusque, public servants wit shiny pants. I had this viewpoir in mind recently when I found mj self in Canberra, and what’s mor attempting to find somebody in th Department of Territories. The De partment has two separate build ings some way apart and the visitc who expects to make quick head way is doomed to failure, as I wa; But that wasn’t the fault of th staff. Wherever I turned, whereve I made an inquiry, as a loj stranger, I was greeted with polite ness and helpfulness. I later com mented on this situation to som friends in the Press Gallery. “N need to be surprised,” they saic “The Territories Department peopl always go out of their way to hel; anybody and everybody.” In tha case, the fact should be recorded

SI.