The Editor's Mailbag

Nauru's German Gaol

An item included in the segment In a Nutshell (PIM, May, p. 125) made passing reference to skeletal remains uncovered recently under the heading “Uncovering Nauruan History”.

We have found this item to be of interest to our family, as my father, Mr, J. Tracey first moved to Nauru in 1933, aged 15 years, as an employee of the company mining the island. He was evacuated off the island after the beginning of hos tilities in the area (approx, eight months after) by the Free French vessel commissioned by the company.

Immediately after the end of the war he returned to Nauru (approx.

October, 1945) and remained there until 1956. Family associations with the island go back further than 1933.

The family home on Nauru was destroyed by the Japanese and the area used as the airfield for the duration of the War in the Pacific.

I have mentioned these facts as we would like to get further information on the above-mentioned article, as we are having some difficulty in re calling the German gaol mentioned.

There were a number of German installations on the island, but the gaol is not among the buildings we can recall. Nor does it appear on the numerous pre-war photos in our possession.

M. Johnson (Mrs.)

94 Royal Parade, Ashgrove, Queensland 4060.

Linguistic Clues

While in Tonga, I read your May magazine section about “Com puterised clues unlock a door to Polynesia’s past” by W. W. Howells with great interest. In that article on page 68, a few lines underneath the picture, the author states that linguists can virtually speak proto- Polynesian”. In the Tonga Chronicle Of May 25, 1972, page 11, I read mat at the Arts Festival in Suva, the Tongans had a performance with an ancient chant—so old that only a tew words could still be understood according to the Hon. Ve’ehala.

If the linguists are as good as stated m the article, couldn’t they have a crack at those ancient chants, maybe through tape, records or other media and the results published in your magazine?

Also with regard to the great “flu

epidemic”, PIM April, pages 15 and 16, isn’t it improper that the re quested diaries, letters, etc., go to a private collector instead of to a public library, by help of PIM. Those diaries, etc., should be collected and retained by libraries in each country concerned, as museum pieces.

E. Lindy.

Nukualofa, Tonga.

That Bomb

As Papua New Guinea is a member of the South Pacific countries, we citizens of it are very much against the idea of the bomb test in the Pacific by France. How do you feel about this? We hope you are in favour with our ideas. We would like you to argue strongly, against the bomb tests.

Will Akus And

Gomang Yalon

(Kar Kar High School Political Club).

Kar Kar Island, Madang District, PNG.

Qantas Query

I would like to contact any ex QANTAS staff, agents, etc., that helped run the New Guinea services and QANTAS services to the Solomons, New Hebrides, Nauru, Gilbert and Ellice Islands and Dutch New Guinea.

The purpose of this contact is to complete a book I am compiling on activities of QANTAS during its period in the Territory.

P.O. Box 1401,

Al. Bovelt.

Lae, P.N.G.

Queen Emma's Land

Your article on Queen Emma’s land (PIM, April, p. 69) was ex tremely interesting, the footnote by Judy Tudor even more so.

My partner Rod Hancock and I own Rabaul Excursions (tour opera tors of the Gazelle Peninsula) and we were rather surprised that Judy Tudor was unable to find “someone who runs this sort of service” while she was visiting Rabaul in early February.

We are not the only tour operators in Rabaul, but we are the only ones who provide a printed brochure and these are supplied to all hotels and motels and are readily available at the reception desks. We are listed in the telephone directory, and are even in the Pink Pages!!

Both of us have lived in Rabaul in excess of 15 years and are personally known by the accommoda tion houses. It is true that reception staff changes all the time and this may have accounted for the lack of ability to locate us. The kiosk at the airport is also operated by us and either one would have been in at tendance when Mrs. Tudor arrived.

Also PlM’s Rabaul representative, Steve Simpson, a friend of long standing, knows where we can be contacted.

It would have been our pleasure to take Mrs. Tudor on a jaunt around the Gazelle, and we might add—with our compliments. We are sorry that her friend’s efforts in contacting us were in vain.

With regard to Queen Emma’s mat-mat we agree that it is a crying shame to see it fall into disrepair (on one occasion we ourselves had the grass cut).

This and other slices of history should be preserved and maintained, the land deemed a historic place and put in the hands of either the Rabaul Historical Society or entrusted to the New Britain Tourist Association.

B. A. Connelly.

Rabaul Excursions, Rabaul. • Judy Tudor comments: Maybe the fact that I arrived in Rabaul at 7 a.m. on a Sunday had something to do with the apparent non-existence of tour operators. Nonetheless, it is a fact that my friend Mrs. Dorothy Stewart, of the Hotel Ascot, who has been longer in New Guinea than all of us put together, could not raise anyone, including Mr. Steve Simpson, on that particular day.

But no matter, so long as someone gets cracking and preserves what's left of New Britain’s historical sites.

Even the Tolais might be grateful some day.

Western Samoans, who have some pre-World War I history in common with NG, have been amazed in recent years at the interest shown by tourists in their few remaining German relics. Though long neglected and ignored, some citizens are now making an honest tala showing them off to visitors.

Meanwhile, and stemming out of that April story on Emma’s old plantations, someone might produce some information on the exact fate of the Parkinson mat-mat; and what happened to the original German headstones in the mat-mat at Kenabot which, according to Mr. Maurice Wilson, was reorganised by the German ambassador to Australia in 1965. If anyone knows, PIM would be grateful to be let into the secret.