Guadalcanar

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 25, 24 October 1942, Page 8

Guadalcanar

Sir, —This name recalls stories told by “ffiackbirders” who, from their hurricane season base at Levuka, Fiji, roved Western Pacific waters in search of labour for the tea, cotton and cocoanut plantations in the then “no-man’s land” of the. Fiji: group. Daring though these men were —they had to be courageous and efficient navigators; for their journeys frequently took them a thousand miles from home—few of them dared drop their hook less" than a chain or so inside the reef, because of the ferocity of -the -Solomon natives, especially in the Guadalcanal: area. In later years the younger natives of ■ this group began to migrate to Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and other island groups,, where they became known as the most competent and tireless of all the numerous native tribes in the Pacific. During five years’ residence in the Pacific, mixing and sailing with skippers of cutters and schooners trading from Fiji to the Solomons and many other areas, Guadalcanar was frequently named, for ■attacks on "black-birding” vessels were frequent in that locality; and never once did I hear the name pronounced other than “Gardalcarnar,” with the emphasis on. the Gar and Cur. There never was a final 1, and the Guar was Gar.—l am, etc.,—T.D. Wellington, October 19.

(Guadalcanal is the spelling used in official communiques by the majority of other authorities.]