“ STONE AGE ” MEN IN 1921.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4309, 26 August 1921, Page 4

“ STONE AGE ” MEN IN 1921.

CORAL ISLAND WALLED IN FROM THE WORLD. A fascinating story of life on the least visited island in the Pacific —■ Rennell Island—l2o miles south of Gaudal.canar, in the Solomon Group, has been supplied by Dr. Northcote Deck; a missionary at Aola, to the Royal Geographical Society, London. yhere are only about 500 inhabiX tants, and because of 'their virtual isolation through lack of ship’s anchorage, even their dialect has never been studied. They are almost cut off from the outside wor,ld by walls of coral limestone 300 feet high, and were found to be still living in a manner "before the Stone Age.” • Dr. Deck has made a series of visitfe. On first landing he established friendly relations with, the natives, who appeared heavily armed. “They brought every available object for sale,” he says, "to obtain the much-coveted iron. All-were smeared with turmeric, giving them a bright yellow colour, and were tattooed in regular patterns according to rank.” On the second visit the doctor found that the island had once been a gigantic atoll; the coral was fissured in all directions, the interstices filled with red soil, said to be of volcanic origin. Caves were seen swarming with flying foxes, whose teeth seem to form the only currency- on the island.

Ten miles of winding track brought 'the party to the shores of a fine inland lake, 10 mil.es long, with islands dotted over its western end. It is entirely separated from the sea on all sides, but communicates Wxtli the sea by fisstires in the coral. Its waters were too salt to be drinkable by the visitors, 'though used for drinking b.> the natives.

The natives navigate tlje lake in big unwieldy canoes, .resembling floating platforms. In one of these a native village was reached, and here the Visitors met the most important chief on the island. He arrived with a fleet of canoes from '.the largest village—"a dignified, powerfully built ( nian, 6 feet .tall, and broad in proportion.” The people still possess little iron,” says Dr. Deck, “and appear in fact to be still living in conditions that existed before the Stone Age. The only implements or weapons of stone ■that jwere seen? were two stone maces, symmetrically ground, w.ith eightknobs, bound to a handle with sennit,' and seemingly for ceremonial use. One of these is now in the British Museum.

These islanders are great fighters and wrestlers. They use thrusting spears of hard, black wood, 12 feet long and 61b in weight, with 15 to 20. barbs on either side. The making of them seems to be a lost art. “Throwing spears are also used,-’* says the doctor, “with points made of human leg and arm bones, and tipped with a bone splinter designed to break oft in the wound. Although most friendly, they are great thieves. They murdered three native teachers left with them, apparently for the sake of their goods. “They seemed to feel keenly the monotony of their isolation, and showed a settled, melancholy, both in their faces and the cadence of their voices. Their only sort of music, to which .they dance, consists in the tuneless beating of a log.”