WHERE ONLY WOMEN WORK

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 288, 31 August 1921, Page 8

WHERE ONLY WOMEN WORK

A LITTLE-KNOWN TACIEIC ISLAND. Kapa—or. Kapa Hi. to (pve its full name —an island nbokr 700 miles south of Tahiti, untouched by tho corrosive blight of civilisation, whose natives live in a state of primitive simplicity, is described ns "tindefiled by Paris fashions or high-heeled shoes.” Indeed, they have no fashions at all. except such of a cast-off nature as may be supplied at very rare intervals by the fjood people of Tahiti when the missionary schooner chances to be going that way.

Kapa would be the ideal resort for the tiled business man. It. is a place where the "wicked cease from troubling and the weary may find rest if he bo of the masculine gender. Tn Rapa the women do all the work tilling the fields, preparing the meals,' and even feeding their lords and masters. All the men have to do is to go out on an occasional fishing expedition and the rest, of the time they sleep. -When dinner .time arrives they' are awakened, r.nd the’ women of the house feed, them by rolling the food in little morsels and tossing them into their mouths. The only effort the. men are obliged to make is the act ’of chewing, and when' this wearies them, they resume, their slumbers until the next meal time. Unfortunately,' Rapa is remote and inaccessible. There is no direct commit, nication from Tahiti, except when tho French gunboat makes „n voyage that way—once a year or so —dr the missionary schooner makes its rounds even less often. 1 Being well out of the tropics, the coconut tree does not thrive there, the only product of any commercial value, being coffee. This is not, however, worth going after, as sufficient coffee is raised on Tahiti, and the nearby islands to sup_ply the demand. Scientists lire interested in Rapa on account of some mn/sivo stone works situated on the hills that look like fortifications. Who built thtns and for what purpose are problems yet unsolved. Representatives from 1116 Bishop Museum of Honolulu are endeavouring to get to Rapa in order to study these remains and to.solve the inystPry of theii; builders.