The Editons' Mailbag

[Esidential Qualifications

In Cook Islands

r,—I regret that the letter which ared over my signature in the ast issue of PIM contained some •red information, hile it is true that the residential ifications for electors and idates in the Cook Islands are lined in New Zealand regula , and not, as stated by your •tonga correspondent, in a local lance, these qualifications are 12 ths residence in the case of ors and three years for idates for the Legislative As piring their discussions last year Constitutional advisers recom led that these qualifications be ght into line with those in force few Zealand, but the Legislative mbly declined to accept the ge. though this Article will, no t, be the subject of further con ation both in the New Zealand Cook Islands legislatures this the Constitution Bill has been ed in accordance with the Native Assembly’s recommenda am sorry that my previous letter ised the issue.

Yours, etc.,

L. J. Davis

itant Secretary, irtment of Island Territories, ington, NZ.

Angau Association

r, —lt may be of interest to you mow that we have formed an :iation of war-time members of jAU, FELO and M and Z Special s. As members of the Royal lan Constabulary were a section the Australian New Guinea linistration Unit (ANGAU) ig the war, they, too, are eligible iin our association. le association came about through nvitation to former members of jAU by Mr. lan McDonald, now rman of the Copra Marketing •d, last year to a reunion dinner iis home. A similar dinner was here in July at the CWA, when McDonald was on an overseas and it was decided to form the ciation. We hope to hold an lal dinner and to prepare an )ur roll to be displayed in a pro mt place. le association’s office-bearers are:

President, Mr. C. Normoyle, vice president, Mr. K. Chambers; sec retary, Mr. H. Jackman; treasurer, Mr. K. Atkinson, As Mr. Normoyle will retire in September from the Public Service, Mr. Chambers will act as president and we shall have to find a vice president. We have just placed an advertisement in the two local news papers, inviting eligible persons to join, and I hope to send an application form and a copy of our constitution to all inquirers.

Anything you can do to pass this information on to interested persons in Sydney will be much appreciated.

I shall send you a copy of the con stitution and the committee’s state ment as soon as we have them printed. —Yours etc.

Harry Jackman.

Co-operatives Dept.

Konedobu, Port Moresby.

What's In A Megapode?

Sir, —Re your article headed “A Dove in the Megapode’s Nest” ( PIM, July, p. 15), the reason Mega pode was chosen as the name for our airline in the Solomons is because this is its natural habitat and, secondly, because it can fly the day it is born.

Pat Williams, Crowley Airways’ secretary, designed the insignia and painted it on the aeroplane with her own hands.

Megapode, which means “bigfoot”, lives on Savo Island across Iron Bottom Sound from Honiara, over looking the scene of the desperate naval battles of 1942.

The natives have the hatcheries divided and owned by families who are responsible for their welfare. The eggs, bigger than a domestic fowl’s, are laid in holes scratched in the warm, damp sand, covered over and left to hatch. This is a first-class example of adapting to environment and general sagacity. There is no loss of time and dignity by having to go “broody” or “ducky” to accomplish something that Nature has provided better facilities to do.

When the young bird is hatched, it comes to the surface and immediately flies away into the jungle. It is fully feathered in a lovely soft, matt-black colour. The ability to fly the moment it is born is unique among bird or man. Their flight is strong. One evening at Murray Falconer’s house on the ridge overlooking Honiara, six

these beautiful little birds flew into : house. Their angle of climb was least 45 deg. up the hill.

Although most of their time is :nt in the jungle scratching for rms and grubs, they still continue fly. After laying their eggs they away from the hatchery with a aping flight similar to the crow.

Fhis is a very un-technical descrip n based on my own observations 1 I would like to hear more about ; bird from someone better qualified in r.

Fhe main point is that Megapode rways, like its namesake, did fly the y it was born and continues to do —Yours, etc.

Hary Moss.

;gapode Airways, miara, BSIP.

Of Many Things

Sir,—l notice that in the article leasant Legends” {PIM, March) iptain Cook is credited with having aught the tortoise Jonathan to St. dena, but in three years residence re, I have never heard of any nnection between the two.

Captain Cook spent about six ys here in 1775 when Resolution sited the island, but according to ;ords, Jonathan did not arrive until out 1820, having been brought re by a master mariner, according the Lowe Papers, and presented the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, gather with two other smaller rtoises, long since dead.

Jonathan still has free use of the ounds of Plantation House, the d residence of the Governors of e island, and is the only living link th Napoleon. He has been clas ied by an officer of the British useum as elephantina, a species ►ssibly from the Aldabra Islands, to e north of Madagascar, but even if is is correct, Jonathan is much rger than any Aldabra tortoise I member having seen in Seychelles, hen I was living there. He is more a size with a Galapagos tortoise id is considerably larger than Tui alila in Nukualofa, Tonga, which have not seen since 1929.

In Tolala’s Talk-Talk (April) the enunciation of Papua has cropped ) again. It is certainly a Malay ord, but the Malay-English dic anary of a former Malayan civil rvant, late R. J. Wilkinson, latex overnor of Sierra Leone, gives the idling as Pepuah, with the vowel being almost completely elided, id having the sound of “a” as in *o. The second syllable would then j stressed. I am sure this will be E great interest to your Motu, Suau, oaribari and Orokaiva readers. I

do not remember hearing the word ■‘pepuah” in use in Malaya. The word “kereting”, in reference to the hair, was more commonly used.

Former Solomon Islands man, Bill Baverstock of Mosman, is very well remembered, and I did appreciate the news of former days contained in his letter PIM pub lished in April.—Yours, etc.

A. H. Green.

Jameston, St. Helena Island.

Bougainville's Cats

Sir, —I am writing to you to know if you could possibly look into a matter which I heard on the BBC

London recently, when it was in dicated that the Administration of BSIP was asking Australia to pro vide 1,000 fierce cats to transport to one of the Solomon Islands suffering from a plague of rats.

I have written to the Secretary of State for the Colonies about this, but you are on the spot and perhaps you could publish an article giving the full facts, which would set my mind at rest.

I was a member of the Administra tion during the period 1956-1958, during which time I came to love Honiara more deeply than any place I have ever known.

What I do know, though, is that a

cat can have one hell of a time if is just let loose to wander, and wh they have killed all the rats and ca find food, what then?

I believe that the Americans ii ported toads to combat the mosqi toes during the war—now, of cour: the place is literally running ali with them. This could happen unh they send all neutered cats, or all cz of one sex—in which case they wou rend each other to bits.

I get the magazine each mon through your agent, H. A. Mackenz of London, and I enjoy it thorough —particularly any information abo the Solomons. Unfortunately the never seems enough of it, but occ sionally I come across a name or face well-known to me.

I am afraid I am not likely go out that way again until I reti: and can perhaps manage a trip, which case I also look forward to stay in Australia. I have made sho stops in various parts of Austral and thought it was a wonderfi country.

I love the PIM. Please get all tl news you can about BSIP for thos of us who are heartsick in Englam will you? My issue gets passe around, as there are quite a few c us who would like to be bac

there.—Yours, etc.

(Miss) Margaret E. Col!

St. Albans, Herts., England. • The place that wanted the cat was Bougainville, TPNG, and nc BSIP. Those appealed to in Australic including the RSPCA, came to th same conclusion as Miss Cole—tha the wholesale importation of cat would not work — and, as far as w know, none were sent. — Ed. PIM.

Japanese Wreck

Sir, —The ship that Mrs. Stephensoi referrerd to in her letter {PIM, July p. 62) is the Tenyo Maru. It was, ! think, one of the ships which wen carrying troops and supplies to Buna She was caught in an air raid and hit and her skipper tried to beach her but a bomb on her stern stoppec that, and she lies on the edge of the deep water shelf. Nobody while ] was in Lae went aboard her. It was said that she carried troops, and that the holds were full of bodies, However, apart from that there was very little of her that you could get at, plus the fear that she might slide right under. Another, the Myoko Maru, was beached and burnt out at Malahang.—Yours, etc.

C. L. Davies.

Rabaul, New Guinea.