Picturesque Oscar

Nordman Is Dead

Oscar Nordman, one of Tahiti’s best-known businessmen and personalities, died in Tahiti at the end of August.

OSCAR who was 73, became ill some seven or eight years ago, and withdrew from active business life in Papeete. There was no one to fill his place—in many ways, Oscar was unique. His death em phasises the fact that another pic turesque Old-timer has gone from the Pacific —and there does not seem to be any more of the type coming along, to become Old-timers in their turn.

Oscar was a member of a large family established in Tahiti late in last century by Edward Nordman, a Swedish merchant; and while still young he went to sea. He spent most of his early working years as a steward and purser on trans-Pacific passenger ships running out of San Francisco, and he became favourably known to travellers in the old Mariposa, between San Francisco and Papeete.

Thus Oscar gained a business ex perience and a complete mastery of English, which served him well in Tahiti, when he settled down there as a victualler of ships. In this way, he engaged in various enterprises, as a caterer, hotel-keeper, ship-chandler, merchant. Any shipmaster visiting Tahiti, requiring service of any kind, was usually told to “Ask Oscar—he knows”. That became Oscar’s well advertised business slogan.

Oscar’s outstanding characteristic was friendliness. In his later life, he seemed to have well-wishers in

every country. This writer met him in various ports —frequently in Syd ney, occasionally in Auckland and in Suva.

He had had many adventures, and he loved to reminisce. When, he set tled down to it, it was difficult to break the flow.

There was the time when the youthful Oscar was instructed by his father to clear away a dilapidated old house wherein had resided a poverty-stricken artist, who had gone off somewhere—was it to the Marquesas? So Oscar pulled the house down, and burned carvings and statuettes and “a lot of old paintings”.

And at this stage of the story Oscar would begin to groan—the stuff, of course, had been the work of Paul Gauguin, and everything by Gauguin had become priceless.

One day before World War 11, Oscar Nordman, running to corpu lence, came into my Sydney office.

He had just arrived from Tahiti per steamer, and he moaned, sat down and pulled off his shoes. People came in there from many places— autres pays, autres moeurs.

Characteristic

But Oscar put his hands deep into his big shoes and pulled out tight packets of American dollars—quite a large sum. The French always have been unwilling to allow the removal of money from their territories, once it had got in there, and they then were quite fierce about it. Also, at that time, there were rules about bringing certain currencies into Aus tralia. Oscar, in characteristic fashion, literally walked over such laws.

With the funds thus available, Oscar bought a merry-go-round con traption for the entertainment of Papeete folk. It was a good idea — but the very shrewd side-show gentlemen in Sydney whom Oscar approached saw him coming, and Oscar was cruelly defrauded. He came back to Sydney afterwards, and launched a prosecution against the people concerned, but got no satisfaction from the court.

In his later years, Oscar combined the development of tourism with his other enterprises, and did much to assist the traffic in Tahiti. He had a happy home life—his wife helped him much in his business. They had two very good-looking and accom plished daughters, who kept Papeete’s social pot boiling before they were married. Scores of his contemporaries all across the world will learn with regret of the passing of friendly and enterprising Oscar Nordman, of

Tahiti.

Rwr.

Oscar Nordman