Pacifique Sud

With Helen Rousseau

Communicating around the Pacific has always been a fun affair of island resourcefulness, amid the powerful barrage of imported material transmitted for propagan da purposes. Even today the radio cocotier (coconut radio) relaying local rumour has as powerful a message as the most sophisticated satellite relays from Paris. The media is the message, and just re cently the Pacific way of com municating has manifested itself in three particular ways out of Noumea from stamps to ham radio and coconut cocktails.

Of course, the communicative effects of alcohol are debatable since an overdose can render the imbiber virtually incommunicado.

This is apparently the case with a very much island-flavoured cocktail that some of the P & O cruisemen have concocted on their way out of Noumea. According to one who has shared in this coconut cocktail, the essential ingredients include ginger syrup, vodka, gin, lime, liqueur and coconut juice. This juice is pre pared, as all Islanders know, by scraping out the coconut in shreds then squeezing out the juice through a cloth. The resultant cocktail looks like a milk shake, but the effect is quite dissimilar. The drink must be downed fast as it congeals in three minutes. P & O have no less than 22 voyages touching Noumea in the 12 months to next March. The coconut cocktail is one obvious way of shar ing happy memories as the ships steam out of New Caledonia.

Another method of com munication recently highlighted in Noumea was the hobby of stamp col lecting, demonstrated through a philatelic exhibition in a city high school. French designers have been most resourceful in producing numerous sets of Caledonian stamps to depict local flora, land and marine fauna, significant buildings, Melanesian tribal life, as well as in land scenery and environment pro tection motifs. At the recent exhibi

tion, students were invited to submit designs to serve as the theme for a “student stamp” to be issued in 1978.

Meanwhile in Sydney, a new philatelic investment service was set up in July by a local sharebroker and a long-time stamp dealer. The new partnership, Duffy and Consta ble, of 4 Bligh Street, Sydney, is specialising in rare stamps of Australasia and those Pacific Is lands where Australia has a partic ular interest, such as Papua New Guinea, Norfolk, Cocos and Christmas Island. Mr Kevin Duffy explained that the finest item in his collection is a block of 12 PNG stamps worth $l2 500. They date from March 1960 where there was a shortage of postage-due stamps, so ordinary T'/ad stamps were over printed. His collector’s set has a double overprint and is believed to be unique, the kind of stamps fastidious international purchasers would seek. Mr Duffy also de scribed the much sought-after post war series of PNG stamps issued from 1952 to 1960. A set of 23 in superb mint condition with a nominal value of $5 would have a present day value of $lOO.

Sharebroker David Constable claims this form of investment can show a much more profitable return than some other business ventures in recent times. Moreover, argues Mr Constable, stamps are very portable $5O 000 worth can be carried around in a wallet. The two men’s collection is valued at over $2OO 000. Referring to the possible investment value of many colourful stamps produced by some Pacific Is lands, Mr Duffy said he would like to “give them a few years to mature”. It was important to wait and see how many were issued; the numbers were not known till the stamps were taken off sale.

Questioned about Australian in terest in French Pacific stamps, Mr Duffy said there was little interest from Australia so far since people

tend to collect according to “ethnic loyalty”. It was a matter of con sumer-demand and what is fashionable, he said, although he ad mitted that this could be a case of which comes first the chicken or the egg since Australian clients would not be so familiar with French issues. Again, it’s all a mat ter of communication.

A novel way of breaking the language and cultural barrier be tween English and French is being explored by a group of Sydney schoolboys speaking by amateur radio to a French military man in Noumea. The boys are at Marist Brothers High School, Eastwood, where Brother Cyril Quinlan has an amateur licence with call sign VK2 ACQ operating on 14.1 50 MHZ. As part of club-work in radio and electronics, the boys met at school on Saturday afternoons to speak with Noumea for one hour from 4 pm Sydney time (0600 GMT). At the Noumea end is 30-year-old Daniel Ludec from France, member of a military radio club. Con versation is exchanged in English and French. The school’s French master, Brother Ralph Arnell, has already visited Noumea to par ticipate in the annual French teachers’ summer school there. The Sydney schoolboys’ initiative in making the radio contact has arous ed considerable interest, including a filming of their French operation by a Sydney TV channel.

A Japanese personality recently back in Noumea was Henry Goto, the roving Pacific artist. Goto-san first appeared in Noumea at the time of the 1966 South Pacific Games when he held his first New Caledo nian exhibition. Since then the former Tokyo advertising man has exhibited in Fiji. Sydney and elsewhere. He has no doubt found great changes in Noumea since 1 1 years ago when the vivid colours and intense light of the South Pacific first surprised his canvas.