French postcards?
p. 77 · Read in the full issue
Psst! Do you want some French postcards?
The French guillotine, with execu tioner standing by, his hand ready to bring down the gleaming blade, would hardly be depicted on postcards of New Caledonia today. No more would one expect them to be accom panied by the gentle greeting, “We hope you are all well.” But such a card did exist, as Patrick O’Reilly ex plains in the introduction to his re cent publication, La Nouvelle Cale donie au temps des Cartes Postales (New Caledonia in the heyday of postcards).
O’Reilly’s album reproduces 235 different Caledonian postcards out of the 2,000-3,000 he estimates were printed to reflect Caledonian life in the heyday of picture postcards, dur ing the first quarters of this century.
With text treating these cards as his torical, even ethnological testimony, Father O’Reilly notes that “Cale donians’ major interests are urban and mining activity.” His postcards, nevertheless, give an extensive view of mainland scenery, Melanesian life, inland settlers, local events and en tertainment besides the mission station.
It is obvious that over the past 50 years some of the postcard scenes have been obliterated—the railway from Noumea to Paita, the gold mines, oil drill at Ouen Toro and convict labour. Some faces and build
ings evoke new connotations today— Nidoish Naisseline, the old Melan esian chief, and the Catalan wine store.
Some personalities seem to have been omitted by the card printers— stockmen, Governor Feillet and nickel-king Higginson. By contrast, the arrival in port of an Australian envoy and also of a messenger from the governor in Sydney are duly pho tographed.
Other cards depict on-going tradi tions which continue today—the fill ing in of the Baie de la Moselle to extend the city of Noumea, immigrat ing New Hebridean workers and appeals for inland hotels and roads to be made more comfortable to attract Australian and New Zealand tourists.
Patrick O’Reilly, now aged 73, visited Noumea in early December to launch his album and attended an exhibition of old postcard blow-ups shown with photographs of the same views as seen today. For the student of things caledoniennes the whole exercise has been a keen testimony to
some 50 years evolution.-
Helen
Rousseau.
(La Nouvelle Caledonie Au
Temps D'p’S Cartes Postales, By
Patrick O’Reilly, for the Societe des Oceanistes, Paris; published by Nouvelles Editions Latines, Paris. Soft cover. Our copy from the publishers, no price avail able.)