Guadalcanal

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 35, 5 November 1942, Page 6

Guadalcanal

, Sir, —The needless discourtesy. of the correspondent who quoted historical records in an attempt to belie my statement regarding the practice of omitting the final “1” when pronouncing this island’s name, inclined me to Ignore him; but as his quotations regarding the origin of the name did not affect my statement of the position, which stands as an incontrovertible fact,. I can take no harm by joining issue with him. * I stated that during a period of five years in the Pacific (your correspondent’s “much longer experience” has no bearing whatever’on the matter), I never heard "the name pronounced other than Gardalcanar, and that there never was a final “1.” The Daniel come to judgment describes that as “abysmal ignorance.” My sailor friends and I have sinned in eminent company, for the Melanesian Press, which is located at Guadalcanal persists in that spelling in. the imprint to its recent publication (1940) . of “The Book of Common Prayer” in the native language. . , , In Eric Muspratt’s delightful book, “My South Sea Island,” a record of six months spent in the Solomons, the name is spelt without a final “I.” If further proof were needed of the accuracy of my statement that it was.the practice to omit this letter that has raised •the hackles of your correspondent, it is. contained in the fact that Lord Amherst and Sir Basil Thomson, who edited “Mendana’s “The Solomon Islands,” also ignored the “1,” though they admitted in a footnote that that spelling was a corruption of the Spanish Guadalcanal. It may mean nothing to the erudite critic, but it is a fact that this classic work (a copy of which is in the Turnbull Library) was published by the Hakluyt Society. Necessarily this famous society falls under the abysmal ban.—l am, etc., T. D. TAYLOR (late Editor, “Fiji Times,” Suva). Wellington, October 31.