For World-Weary Americans

De Luxe Plan for Palmyra

There's Even Buried Treasure

By a Staff Writer.

Several lavishly illustrated brochures, designed to induce world-weary Americans to invest in a plan to develop Palmyra Island into a luxurious pleasure resort, reached PIM in August.

>ALMYRA, an atoll comprising about 50 small islets with a total ea of 1,000-odd acres, is 1,070 lies south of Honolulu and 3,000- Id miles from San Francisco and >s Angeles. [The atoll is owned by the Fullard *o family who have leased all but le small islet for 80 years to Poly »sian Paradise Inc., a subsidiary of [ercury International Insurance nderwriters of Los Angeles. [The brochures —issued by Poly jsian Paradise Inc.—offer investors barter membership” of the Royal Mynesian Club of Palmyra at a cost [ $1,560.

Membership, which is limited to )0. entitles investors to the choice a beach lot, use of the club house id grounds, undefined privileges at le marinas, golf course, tennis courts id playgrounds, discount purchases [ the community store and a col arful charter membership scroll.

Nothing Built Yet j A lot selection plot plan provides )r 208 “beach quarters” along a tach about 7,000 feet long. This brks out at an average frontage t about 45 feet—or several feet less lan the frontage of an average Syd ey suburban home.

None of the brochures makes it ear that the club house, marinas, plf course, tennis courts, play rounds and community store have ot been built yet. Nor do they say jiat Palmyra does not have, and [ever has had, a native population.

I However, the brochures say that Polynesian culture and history will e perpetuated at Palmyra” and they peak of “the enthralling music and lances” and “exquisite carved and voven handicraft articles.”

The brochures also contain mouth watering photographs and realistic Irawings of motor launches speeding [cross lagoons, natives climbing coco lut trees, boats moored near sandy Reaches, a multi-storey hotel and

houses complete with bird cages over hanging the sea.

The purple prose in one of the brochures fairly takes your breath away. It apparently did the same thing to the writer, judging by the number of suspension points and dashes. Here are a few samples: • Life in Palmyra will be com fortable and pleasurable. The scenic views from cottage lanais will be kaleidescopic in colour , . . aqua, turquoise, azure—sky and water . . . reflections of the intense greens of the tropical forests ... all within a massive dome of sky resting on the rim of the blue sea. • Nights . . . romantic. Dining with the lagoon waters lapping gently below . . . dancing where music lingers in the whisper of the trades . . . intimate groups in lounges. • Native village Polynesians living in authentic native style • • • engaging in production of handicraft articles . . . native style of fishing, agriculture, use of coconuts, feasts and frivolity.

In a section headed “history, the brochure tells of the crew of “a pirate ship fleeing with tons of Peru vian gold and silver ingots” who stumbled on Palmyra, settled, and buried their loot.

"Nonsense' This piece of nonsense is followed by the statement that the “atoll jewel was discovered in 1802 by the Ameri can naval ship Palmyra, whose cap tain and crew were so taken by its beauty that they named it after their “beloved ship” (Actually, the Pal myra was a merchant ship, whose captain wrote disappointedly that he could find no fresh water on the atoll).

With the brochures, PIM also re ceived two reports on the develop ment of Palmyra prepared for Poly nesian Paradise Inc. One gives a broad idea of the financing required for developing the island.” The other professes to explain where visitors

> Palmyra will come from and why.

The first report—after making the ituous statement that “Palmyra is ne of two atolls in the world that as sufficient rainfall to continually jstain life and vegetation”—seems jber enough.

It says that most of the facilities istalled on Palmyra by the US Navy nd Civil Aeronautics Administration etween 1938 and 1951 have de corated “beyond reclamation”; that [is advisable to extend the existing linway from 6,000 to 10,000 feet; lat there are no radio navigation or ight aids for the runway; that the larking of the main harbour’s chan el entrance, channel sides and coral eads is of “principal importance”; tat the original road and causeway astern has been overgrown; that the auseway system, which crossed the 101 l between the centre and east Igoons, is broken down in two laces; and that some 30 to 50 build igs on one of the islets are beyond feclamation “and will have to be leared in the initial construction bases.”

The report also lists a number of uildings “in very good condition” nd says they could be used to estab sh the nucleus of a construction amp in the early stages.

Three Stage Plan I The report recommends a three tage plan for the development of blmyra. The first stage, which in ludes a start on the construction if a 300-unit hotel, is estimated to ost $4,651,500. The estimated cost f the hotel itself is a further 4,772,250.

The report gives no clue as to /here the nine million-odd dollars or these developments will come rom; but it estimates that the gross ticome for the first full year of iperation of the resort (1965) will ic $776,283.

The other report, which is called A Study of the Traffic and Spend ng Potential,” says Hawaii visitor raffle is looked on as the main ource of visitor traffic to Palmyra luring the first few years.

The report says that at least a bird of the annual visitors to Hawaii :an “easily afford” a side trip to J almyra, and that as 65 per cent, of hese are “motivated to make a side rip,” Palmyra could expect 131,500 fisitors in 1964.

I Assuming, it says, that each visitor stayed an average of four days, this would mean Palmyra would have an average of 1,435 visitors each day in 1964; and because of the growth of tourism in Hawaii, it would have 2,974 in 1968.

The report also estimates that a daily average of 61 people “from the upper income brackets, who gravitate to unique, out-of-the-way places” will live in “retreats” on Palmyra.

The report does not estimate how many people will have to be im ported into Palmyra to look after the estimated 3,000-odd daily visitors in 1968. Nor does it say how many Polynesians will live there “in authentic native style” or where they will come from.

But if one estimates these numbers

conservatively at 500, making an average daily population in 1968 of 3,500, it looks as if Palmyra’s 1,000odd acres will be no place to get away from it all. In fact, they will be 10 times more crowded than Tonga was at the 1956 census.

An English-born medical assistant stationed at Kandrian on New Bri tain’s south coast, has just completed the buildin" of a 30-bed hospital on Gasmata Island. He is Mr. Bill Race, of the Health Department, and his achievement took six months.