NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16749, 2 January 1915, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The hoistiug of the British flag on Bougainville Island, in the Solomon group, nows of which comes by cablegram from Sydney, is of particular* interest because it marks the complete extinction of German rule in the Pacific. Bougainville was one of the islands included for administrative purposes in Germany’s Bismarck Archipelago, and tiro recent capture of Raboul really carried with it the acquisition of the German Solomons, but the annexation now reported-gives the conquest tho necessary formal finishing touch. Bougainville is an island not to be despised, for it is a hundred and forty miles in length, with . a width of thirty-five miles; it is-moun-tainous and covered for most of its area with forest, but there sre extensive valleys and flats near tho soa, on which large plantations of coconuts

and other tropical productions, including rubber, have been established. In 1899 an Anglo-German agreement was made whereby a number of the Solomon Islands wore handed over to Britain, Germany ictaining Bougainville and a smaller island called Buka, and since then German enterprise had done a good deal to develop the resources of Bougainville, which, by the way, owes its name to a French navigator of tho eighteenth century. The ono drawback to settlement in those Northern Solomons, as in tho adjacent islands of New Britain and New Irelandj is fever, from which no white man is exempt.

Missionary enterprise, as far as tho British are concerned, has not .been greatly encouraged in Bougainville by the Germans. At present tho Melanesian mission steamer Southern Cross on her periodical cruises does not go further north than Ysabel Island, or Santa Ysabel de la Estrella, as Mendana called it 300 years ago; this island is just to the south-east of Bougainville. The curso of these Northern Solomons until lately was head-hunt-ing, a prnctico that is not quite extinct in Bougainville and its neighbours. Tho northern end of Ysabel used to he a favourite hunting ground for the northern and western tribes, who came down in their war canoes in great force from Choiseul and Bougainville and tho savage island of New Georgia. The bays ef Bougainville have been tho scenes of many affrays between white ships’ crows and the natives, and it was in one of these inlets that the auxiliary screw vessel Ripple, an Australian craft, was attacked in 1880, a desperate affair, in which tho master (Captain Ferguson) and five native sailors were killed and two white men seriously wounded. Even to-day some of the Bougainville tribes are “ kittlo cattle,” in spite of the joint influences of traders und mission pioneers and Gerrnau men-of-war.

The periodical appeal from Dr Barnado’s Homes comes witli added force just now, for the great war has added great and pressing responsibilities to the ordinary work of these hoines, which are doing such splendid benevolont service to the poor of Britain. Tho committee lias a family of nearly eight thousand boys and girls looking to it for food and clothing, and the army of destitute children is daily increasing. It has been found necessary to give assistance to many children whoso fathers have gone to the front to fight for tho Empire, and as the committee rightly says, upon the nation and the Empire devolves the duty of the children’s guardianship? Not one of these children must be allowed to suffer, and Dr Barnardo’s Homes are doing timely service by taking theso little children in and tending them and providing for their future in those cases, unfortunately many, where the breadwinner has fallen on the field of battle.

The story of Dr Barnardo’s Homes, of course, has been told time without number, but tho latest figures of their “ output ” should help to stimulate the interest and the generosity of tho Empire’s citizens. Since Dr Barnardo established the first Homo forty-eight years ago sxoro than eighty thousand children come under the caro of himself his band of fellow-workers and tJqss rkc followed in his footsteps. The SnJSB&s gather hopeless and neglected hVHIo ones and those who have lost theif Barents and train them in the ways \i nappiness and usefulness. At least \.Vo hundred of Dr Barnardo’s proteges have been sent out to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to become colonists, but most have gone to Canada, which has provided a home and a future for more than twenty-five thousand boys and girls from the Homes. There are seven hundred of tho hoys now in the Army and Navy, and there are three hundred constantly in training at the naval school maintained by (lie Homes committee. Barnardo boys havo shared in most of the naval engagements in the present .war, as well as in many land battles. The work of the Homos is distinctly national and patriotic. At present it is said to bo fraught with special difficulty, for tho war has diverted much of the stream of subscriptions. Money is urgently required, and those who send their donations will have the reward of knowing that not only are they helping to relieve the distress of little orphaned children but doing something to make useful citizens against the Empire’s future needs.