Niue, island of tropical

charm—and dust

By H. A. Coleman

Niue has no lakes or streams or natural running water of any kind. When it rains there is never any danger of a flood; the water hits the ground and disappears within a few minutes.

When the rain stops the ground is dry again within an hour or two.

This is all very nice for those who don’t like mud, but for the un fortunate people who are allergic to coral dust, it isn’t so nice. A couple of days without rain and we are smothered with coral dust. Eyes water, sinuses throb, and bronchial tubes complain.

It might have been all right 50 years ago, when all that passed along the roads were barefooted locals and, occasionally, a European on a horse or a bicycle.

Then came the motor vehicles. At first there were only a few —a truck or two, the Resident Commissioner’s motor car, and a couple of motor cycles. This couldn’t have been too bad for the roads were narrow and rough, the traffic moved slowly, and there was bush alongside the roads that shaded them and helped them to retain some moisture.

Now the situation is vastly dif ferent. Niue’s roads have been widened and graded and are infested with more than 500 motor vehicles.

About 300 of these possess two

wheels, the rest have more. One large contraption used for hauling logs from the bush to the sawmill has not less than 14 of them—big ones.

I suppose that at least half of these vehicles are on the roads for some part of each day, and each one of them must pass along the main street of Alofi at some time during its travels. So, at a rough estimate, there are 1,000 wheels whizzing through Alofi every day, each one followed by a cloud of dust.

The speed limit of 25 mph through the village does little to abate the nuisance, as a wheel moving even at this modest pace can drag up a fair heap of dust. (Anyway, who worries about the speed limit when the Police Department is otherwise engaged?) Shopkeepers snarl as their freshly displayed goods assume the ap pearance of antiques, and housegirls weep as their mistresses run fingers over newly-polished table tops.

Those who visit the aerodrome under construction 2i miles from Alofi are advised to take respirators.

Earth-moving plant was designed to move large quantities of dirt from A to B; the machines we have on Niue move most of it from A up into the air.

There will be no need to worry about the aerodrome because in a year or two’s time the runway will be sealed with bitumen so that the delicate intestines of the big jets won’t be upset by a diet of com minuted coral, but what about the rest of the island? Every boat brings more and bigger and faster wheels to raise the dust.

A few years ago the Public Works Department sealed the road outside the hospital. The department also sealed the steeper sections of the main roads where they leap up from the western terrace to the central plateau.

This was done more to stop the surface from being washed away than to keep down the dust. Heavy trucks and tractors soon broke up these sealed surfaces, or they were damaged by machinery when the roads were being widened.

They came with buckets

The main thoroughfare of the township of Alofi, Niue’s seat of government, shopping centre, and point of entry for tourists, visitors and new motor vehicles, was, how ever, not given the treatment until recently.

Some men clad in overalls came with a truck-load of buckets and watering cans and some drums of black stuff. They splashed the black stuff on the road over a distance of a couple of hundred yards. They also splashed a bit over any cars that happened along, and splashed plenty over themselves.

They did a good job, however. The road is now signed, sealed and delivered in good order and condi tion. Mind you, there is still the teeniest bit of dust rising from the grit they spread over the liquid to soak up the mess, but the shop keepers are smiling again, and so are the housegirls, who now need dust the tables only once a week.

This is OK for the half-dozen or so householders and shopkeepers fortunate enough to border the main street of Alofi, from the Post Office to Utuko Corner. Other people on the street are still gritting their teeth, and hoping that perhaps there will be enough bitumen left over from the aerodrome job to finish off the rest of the street.