REMOTE ISLAND COMMUNITY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22504, 12 September 1938, Page 10

REMOTE ISLAND COMMUNITY

N.Z. WARSHIP’S VISIT WHERE NO EUROPEANS LIVE (fBISS ASSOCIATIONS TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, September 10. An unexpected call at the lonely island of Tikopia, in the Santa Cruz group, south of the Solomons, in answer to what were taken to be distress signals, was the only incident outside the normal routine of the Imperial Escort Vessel Wellington’s winter patrol cruise amortg the Pacific Islands, from which she has just returned to Auckland. H.M.S. Wellington’s visit to the island was the first made by a warship since 1920, when the old Australian cruiser Adelaide went there. The Wellington was asked by a radio message to investigate the reason for mysterious lights seen at night from a distance in the sky above Tikopia. The warship was the only vessel near at hand which could possibly have been sent, as the Melanesian mission steamer, Southern Cross, which normally is the island’s sole means of communication with the outside world, was then on her way to •Auckland for survey.

It was found on arrival, however, that the lights were not distress signals. They were bonfires, apparently lighted to assist the native inhabitants, of whom there are about 1400, to fish off the reef at night. For the islanders the fact that the Wellington had been deviated a considerable distance off her course was of no importance. She was the first warship many of them had seen, and her arrival was greeted with intense excitement. This was also the first time that a large proportion of the natives had seen so many white men at one time, and they were all eager to have the vessel stay there more than the lew hours she could spare. An Unspoiled Cornipunity No white man lives on the island, and apart from the occasional visits of the Southern Cross, the last timte the island was visited for any length of time by a European was in 1928-29, when Dr. Raymond Firth, the former Aucklander, who is now Reader in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, in the University of London, went there to carry out anthropological research for the Australian National Research Council. The island, which is only about three miles long by two miles wide, is peopled by Polynesians. although all the surrounding islands contain Melanesiahs. The people of Tikopia are of considerable importance in the study of Polynesian culture, being one of the few unspoiled island communities in the South Pacific. They persist in close adherence to their old forms of culture. Although savage in appearance, they are kindly and hospitable, and could not do too much for the Wellington's company. About 12 islands were visited altogether. and the weather generally was fine and the patrol uneventful. No cases of sickness were brought back to Auckland.