LONELY NIUAFOOU

Hokitika Guardian, 1 November 1930, Page 6

LONELY NIUAFOOU

“TIN CAN” MAIL ISLAND. Niuofoou is owe of the “dominions” of the Queen of Tonga. The little island lies some 200 miles north-west of Vavau, and possesses much better means of communication with the outside world than do many more important Pacific islands by reason of the fact that a “tin can” mail is dropped and lifted by the Tofua on her voyage between Apia and Suva when weather conditions permit.

Every speck of land and every pause, long or short, on an ocean voyage is an event for the steamer’s passengers. Even in the balmy southern seas, tin; leagues of blue water become long and a little monotonous to most folk, no matter how persistently they ti y to feel as the great discovering voyagers must have felt when they went seeking for the unknown in the gaps of their day. WHat a boon it would be if on the long, cold, rare run from Capetown to Port Chalmers the traveller could make contact with men and things! There is the interest of the widelyscattered archipelago on the slant mn from Samoa to Fiji, hut Niuafoou is the event because of the pause and because of the extraordinary mail service. It is a wicked shore for boat woik. The long swell smashes itself into foam and spray upon the rocky landing place, and while the natives of the island are as accomplished boatmen as those of Niue, for boats must be used to carry the copra to, vessels in the roadstead, they do not worry ah,out boats on mail day. Instead, they seal the mail in tins, to which they tie a short stick as a handle, and, each using a long buoyant pole to help to support him, somehow. negotiate ■ the surf with long easy strokes, and swim out a mile or more to meet the steam-

On board all eyes strain ahead as the steamer slowly edges inshore to reach the watery rendezvous opposite the landing place. On a fine day the water is a dark blue, and the glare is as dazzling as the Waitemata at its best. Landsmen can never ghage distance over water, and most people are peering ahead long before the ship is within binocular range. At last someone shouts and feels very proud to have been the first to have picked up the heads in the water. But it is not the heads, hut the tin cans held vertically. Slowly the ship is alongside the swimmers. A bucket' is put' overthe side, and one by one the swimmers deposit their burden -in it,,* Nq„ postman ashore could* he more casual than these Tongan young men as they deliver to the lowered bucket the communication of their people to the outside world a mile from the shore. The job done, they lie breast down upon, one. end of their pole, and with a.marvellous kick or two dive off like.,gambolling fishes. ” ;1 • <W| - /■ H\ THE TRADER PAYS A CALL,;-. Among them one is likely to observe a European, the manager of one of the' two trading stations on the island. “Come aboard” shouts an officer^ and a Jacob’s ladder is lowered for him. Up he swarms, and reaching the deck walks serenely to the captain’s cabin, as if lie were quite in the hahlt“v,llf making social calls in a bathing* costume.

This day, perhaps, he may be questioned about tbo rumour that has been drifting about the ocean that a few days ago a high pillar of smoke had been seen to the north. No, he had not heard it. Had there been a volcanic eruption on his own island? No again. And in a few minutes he is back on deck. He says “So long,” climbs on the rail, and promptly dives like a gannet into the sea again. A master swimmer and a magnificent high diver. He recovers his pole that had been held by one of the natives, gets his own tin of mail, and away go the team of six'- or eight shoreward.

“By jove,” says a tourist, and the others make equally .■■• inane comments as the steamer starts on her way again. But something = must be said when one strikes this rather exquisite touch of romance in what is mostly a very workaday world —even in the Southr Seas. V

It is a coincidence that Niua'oou, which happens to be the most favourable; spot from which to observe the eclipse of the sun, should also be one of the most interesting islands foi geologists. From the sea it seems to be an ordinary South Pacific island. Its slopes are thickly covered with cocoa nut palms—trees, by the way, which produce nuts of enormous size, probably the largest in the world. Actually one sees only the outer rim of a vast volcanic crater. This highly Rutile rim encloses a crater lake three miles in length and one mile and tbieeqnarters wide. One one side the rim slopes gradually down to the level of the lake ; on the other there are cliff's rising as’high of (500 ft,. The water has a pronounced m.aeral flavour, and at one place gas bubbles up through it. The island is by no means quiescent. Volcanic disturbances took place in 1886 and again in 1912. and only a year or two ago a serious eruption took place through the outer rim at one end of the island. The fracture, which is still steaming, occurred along a line of sufficient length to discharge an extensive flow of lava, which devastated a belt of country rmlit to the sea. Our astronomers will therefore have some reason for turning their gaze from the heavens to the earth, and reflecting upon the composition of their own sphere. Should there be art ornithologist in

the party he will have the satisfaction of observing the malau, a bird peculiar to the island, which is remarkable for* laying an egg disproportionately largo in relation to the size of its body.