From pork to

French

Polynesia

From pork to corned beef

The high mark in trade re lations between Australia and Tahiti was reached a surpris

ingly long time ago as early

as the beginning of the last cen tury, write Marie-Therese and Bengt Danielsson from Papeete. Now as then, the main article exchanged was meat, but there was a still more surprising difference: Australia was not the exporter but the importer. It should also be noted that the meat imported to feed the new convict settle ment was not beef but pork, supposedly fit for transport and

consumption simply after

having been ‘pressed and

salted’ in Tahiti by the natives, under the guidance of the small band of British Protestant mis sionaries who had been there since 1797.

While waiting for the pork to be cured by the Tahitian ven dors, the captains of these early ‘Australian trading vessels often made a quick trip to the Tuamotu Islands to purchase

pearls and mother-of-pearl

shells. Other goods which could be had in all the Society Islands were coconut oil and arrowroot. In exchange, the islanders received liquor, fire arms and fabrics. Enterprising traders also put forward several schemes aimed at the acqui sition in the islands of a com modity which was in even shorter supply in New South Wales than pork women, but nothing ever came of these pro

jects.

Professor Harry Maude of the Australian National

University, who has published

a most interesting study on the subject, estimates that the total amount of pork imported from Tahiti between 1801 and 1826 exceeded three million pounds.

The same authority also makes

the following pertinent re

mark: ‘The real importance of the Tahitian pork trade to Aus