Tropical Pacific Islands Not All Movies Paint Them

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 88, 20 January 1950, Page 5

Tropical Pacific Islands Not All Movies Paint Them

Having spent 10 month? in the Cook Islands and helped, while he was there, to build the aerodrome at Rarotonga, Mr J. GainsboroughSmith told the Whakatane Rotary Club on Tuesday night that he had come back with the impression that the islands, though interesting, were not all the American movie producers painted them. Romance under a tropical moon was not the whole story by any means. To start with, getting ashore on these atolls was a horrifying experience for the new chum. Riding over the coral reef in an open boat seemed all in the day’s work to the residents, but Mr Smith confessed it had him rattled.

Water was stringently rationed in ,most places, Rarotonga being the only one of the group with a river. The others had to store rainwater in communal reservoirs, from which it was rationed out by the billyful. That gave the Resident Agent a strong lever to keep order. He could cut an offender’s water ration. .~v.

The v administrative set-up was that each island had its Resident Agent responsible to the Resident Commissioner, who was in turn responsible to the New Zealand Government

Health on the islands was not good, Mr 'Smith said, and the average income would be about £25 a year. They had no fresh meat, no butter; lived mainly on skinny island chickens, flying fish, coconuts and taro (their only green vegetable.) In most occupations the pay was 4/- a day, but orange pickers could get 5/- a case, which it took a good man a day to collect. At that, he had seen 1,000 cases of oranges left tp rot because the Maui Pomare, working to strict schedule, had not been able to wait for them to be taken out to her.

However, despite the drawbacks consequent upon their low incomes and somewhat poor standard of living, the people of the islands Were industrious, intelligent/ and born artisanfs. In proof of thaty statement, VMr Smith passed round seme truly remarkable samples of island handcrafts.