AN ISLAND ROMANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1921, Page 4

AN ISLAND ROMANCE.

WHITE .MAN CHOSEN KING. WHId.INGTON, Oct. IT. The officers of the lt.iM.S. Maraina, which arrived back at Wellington yesterday from San Francisco, tell of a most romantic experience by a member of (lie crew of an abandoned barque, who was a passenger from Papeete by the Marama on her recent run to San Francisco. As related in another column, the ollicers and crew of the Italian barque Monte Bianco abandoned their vessel on lire and ultimately reached a remote island in the Solomon Group. IN I.OVE WITH BLONDE GTANT. All thp members' of the crow of the ;

Monte. Bianco were Italians witli tne exception of two Swedes, Knot Lddgren and Gminor laaksson. 1 he. former was a nian of great statue and not ill-favoured in looks. It seems that on the island, there were about d-IO natives, mostly women. A\ hen these native women, many of them very good to look at. saw this blonde giant they r.ii i ...111. Tit in Tliev were fifty-

foui' days on the island, and when the trading schooner called in aitd Knot Gddgrcn started to climb into the boat tip. women made a concerted rush to hold him hack. They implored him te stay and said cthey would make him king of the island. RKTI : It NS TO BE KING. Cd'lgren fought the swarm of femininity away and jumped into the schooner's dinghy singing out that ho would return, lie left San Francisco hv Uie Mamma on her way H AA rollingtnn and disembarked at Papeete. At the latter port he intended to take leisSaoe liv a tradiiur schooner to his

future kingdom Tiihn.ni where lie expects to spend the rest of his life ns king of the island. He said: “Why not ? The climate is wonderful. I can have the pick of several hundred beautiful women for a queen, and I can run that island on up-to-date methods and make something out thos'o natives. I believe the with better rommiinicnlion with larger islanchl and with the outside world generally. it is possible to build up a very prosperous community . There is plenty to eat., a little something; to drink that the temperance people would not approve of. and a number of simple, hut loyal friends.”