Ahiti Plantation

New ideas to attract tourists to French Polynesia

Golf Course To Be

Built On Famous

Ahiti Plantation

An 18-hole golf course, com te with lakes, bunkers, flower is, etc., is to be built at imaono on the south coast of hiti. Atimaono is the only ex sive area of flat land in the ole of Tahiti, CENTURY ago it was the site of a grandiose cotton plantation run an Irishman, William Stewart, who •orted the forbears of Tahiti’s pre t Chinese population as labourers. : plantation collapsed at the end the American Civil War when US on plantations got into production in. in American architect who con ned the golf course idea for naono arrived in Tahiti a couple months ago to prepare the design it. When completed the course be suitable for international golf maments. rolf-loving tourists may be able camp right beside it, as Eastern lines recently took up an option mild a hotel in the Atimaono dis t.

Other plans

he golf course is among a number projects announced recently that help to boost French Polynesia’s •ist industry. Others include: ► The extension of the new air ) at Lake Temae, Moorea, from metres to 1,500 metres. ► The construction of an 800re airport at Huahine, where a iber of ruined maraes (ancient mesian places of worship) have ntly been rebuilt under the direc of Dr. Yoshiko H. Sinoto, of Bishop Museum, Honolulu. ) The building of a bigger air final at Faaa, Tahiti, by the end 1969. ► An inquiry into the feasibility milding an airstrip at Tubuai in Austral Islands south of Tahiti. : an airstrip at Tubuai is built, vill enable tourists to visit an id that is intimately linked with mutiny of the Bounty. übuai is the refuge that the

mutineers first headed for after the mutiny, and it was there that they began building a massive fortress for their own protection after they had paid a brief visit to Tahiti to obtain livestock and poultry.

The remains of the fortress (which was to have had walls 18 ft thick at the base and 12 ft thick at the top) still exist—or, at least, they did until a few years ago. At that time, a Tubuaian house stood within the ruined walls.

The mutineers began building the fortress at the end of June, 1789, but they abandoned it a couple of months later after disagreements among

themselves following Fletcher Christian’s refusal to head an armed party to bring Tubuaian women to their camp by force.

Not long afterwards, the Bounty returned to Tahiti, where some of the mutineers went ashore. The others sailed on with Christian to Pitcairn Island.

Very few Europeans have ever visited Tubuai, which, before World War 11, was a Polynesian reserve.