AN ISLAND ARCADIA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1954, 10 January 1914, Page 5

AN ISLAND ARCADIA.

ECCHRE PARTIES DAY AND NIGHT By Telegraph—Pfcss Association—QapyrieUit Sydney, January ff. Doctor Hon re, a resident of tho i'tsiou, or Tokelau, Islands, a smali group about. 351) miles north-west of Samoa, is visiting Sydney, and (jives a rather lugubrious account of liis kiisgdom. He ;uul a trader aw tire only whites in the group. He describes lii'o as deadly monotonous, and says he is dumped amongst laay, good>for-noii'iing natives, whoifo language is foreign to him. and with whom ho has nothing in coiuinen. There are about a thousand natives in the group, who closely resenvblo Siunoans. Nominally they are Christians, but according to Dr. Boare their religion is only skin deep. They are peaceable folk, but morally frail, and incurably lazy. They havo developed a passion for card-playing, euchro parties being held all day and night. The little copra 'manufactured is self!, 1 and tho proceeds expended oil luxuries, but their other crops yield sufficient to supply their wants. The group would be a haven for those content to pass the rest of their days "tho world forgetting and by the world forgot."